La Voz de Aztlan
Los Angeles, California
January 2000

The Hypocrisy of U.S. Immigration Policy

The Statue of Liberty by Ellis Island in New York Harbor is a testament of white European immigration to America. The inscription: "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.", is not meant for immigrants of color. This is primarily the great hypocrisy of the U.S. immigration policy.

The most absurd of these policies is the "Great Wall" that has been built along the U.S/Mexico border to keep indigenous groups, who were here centuries before the white people, out. The triple fence was built with great fanfare and was celebrated by white immigration reform groups with banners, music, food and drink. One particularly bigoted group waved a banner stating "Fences Make for Good Neighbors." The leader of this group happens to be an immigrant from England. Another white immigration reform group raised funds to erect a large sign at the California border stating "Welcome to the Illegal Immigrant State."

U.S. Immigration policy as it concerns Mexicans, is tied to the demand for industrial and agricultural labor. It is a well known fact that in good economic times and low unemployment, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (I.N.S.) looks the other way when it comes to making raids at industrial sites and agricultural farms. The economies of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas would collapse if immigrants would stop working for one week, yet because of the newly built wall, thousands of immigrants have lost their lives attempting to come to work on this side of the border. In just one month after the wall was built, 19 immigrants froze to death near San Diego. Countless more have drowned in the treacherous waters of the Rio Grande between Laredo and Matamoros. In addition, a large number of undocumented workers are now getting diseases because they are crossing the New River portion of the Rio Grande which is considered the worst polluted river in the world. The white industrial and agricultural complex is addicted to cheap immigrant labor yet they do not care that these workers are dying while trying to come to work.

Another immense hypocrisy that has been exposed recently is exemplified by the Cuban child Elian Gonzalez. Here we have an undocumented child with a father in Cuba that wants him back, but because of the hypocritical anti-Fidel politicians, the U.S. Congress wants to make him a citizen by special decree. Any Mexican, Central American or Haitian child in the same circumstances would be booted out in no time at all. This case is making the U.S. and the exiled Miami Cuban expatriates the laughing stock of the world.

The last hypocrisy that this article wants to address concerns the naturalization part of I.N.S. The U.S. is supposed to be the Mecca of Democracy yet it has recently moved to stop the naturalization of Mexican residents who have immigrated here legally. This is an outright attempt by white people who run the I.N.S to halt the political empowerment of La Raza. The citizenship process which results in more Latino voters has almost come to a halt by the inactions of the I.N.S. bureaucracy and by the impositions of new requirements including the raising of citizenship application fees from $95 t0 $245.

Eventually, La Raza will overcome all these injustices. At that time we may be able to built our own "Monument to the Mexican Immigrant" as was done in New York Harbor for the Europeans. Perhaps a huge Aztec Pyramid with a statue on the top would be in order. The monument could be built in Los Angeles which has the greatest number of Mexicans next to Mexico City. Or as some have proposed, build it somewhere along the border but instead of a statue on top, a huge rotating light beacon might be more appropriate.

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Prior Cuacauhtzin Columns:
LOS(T) ANGELES: The Shameful LAPD and LAUSD Corruption Scandals

California Proposition 21 Will Incarcerate More Latino Children

Hector Carreon is the founder and publisher of La Voz de Aztlan and resides in Whittier, California. He was born in the Mexican state of Chihuahua and moved to Aztlan at the age of 5 years. Hector is a graduate in Civil Engineering from California State University at Long Beach where he was a founding member of the Society of Mexican-American Engineers and Scientists (MAES). He served honorably for two year as a Vietnam-era soldier in the U.S Army's 2nd Armored Division and is a graduate of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund's Advanced Leadership Program. Hector Carreon can be contacted at La Voz de Aztlan

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