FEATURING the Netroots Nation 2010 Immigration Checkpoint mock ICE action.
A group of friends and myself staged a mock immigration checkpoint where we racially profiled European immigrants and their descendants, and required them to show papers that proved they had a right to trespass on native land. Some were puzzled, many laughed, and a couple were furious. What made the difference in these reactions?
THE LONG WAR. The Longest War the USA has been engaged in is not with Afghanistan. It is with Truth. It is against Truth. It is the war for White Supremacy, and it takes many shapes over time and yet never owns up to its own name: War. Waged by other means.
WALLS IN THE MIND, WALLS IN THE DESERT. Ritual and roles. Bodies and souls. You can contain another’s with a show of force, but it will be at the cost of imprisoning your own.
OBAMA AND THE TIGHTROPE. Zeituni in the cold. Hypocrisy in the land of anthems. The power of youth…ignored. A shout out to Cuéntame, the soothing nature of certain samenesses, and the creeping chill of ICE.
IN THIS WEEK’S NEWS WITH NEZUA we cover Baby Carillo (snatched, returned, and snatched again); A wrong way onto the Highway Ramp of Deportation; Museum forays into the Immigration dialogue, and a moment of celebration at Joe Arpaio’s expense. Adelante!
THERE IS AN AMBER ALERT for Yair Anthony Carillo, one sweet baby boy snatched in Nashville on Tuesday by a woman who entered the Carillo home pretending to be an Immigration authority demanding papers proving citizenship and left after stabbing the mother nine times.
EVERY DAY IT BECOMES CLEARER that the current form of “Enforcement First” immigration tactics boil down to a War on Latinos with all the measures in place lending themselves enabling, requiring, or encouraging the illegal practice of racial profiling. The data and evidence grows, and here is another addition.
WHAT IS 287(g)? Unless you are familiar with immigration legislation or follow the dialogue, you may not be entirely sure. I wanted to comment on the issue, as well as provide a basic introduction and so for this week’s News With Nezua, I tackled the 287(g) provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE UNDOCUMENTED…. but anyone who studies history knows what comes next. If you and I allow Them to be abused, we lose. I write of the ballooning Constitution-ignoring para-police agency named ICE.
WELCOME TO ANOTHER SORDID CHAPTER in the Sherrif Joe Arpaio Freak Show. I know my regulars are all too aware of this sad, aging, dinocreptastic remnant of an era screeching into our past and not gracefully and with guns—but if you are not, here is a treat for you, a YouTube vid dealing with his latest daring act of wackery.
AS WE MOVE CLOSER AND CLOSER to enacting immigration reform, the situation on the ground is evolving as well. Nothing is static for an issue that touches so many people across so many communities. This week’s wire follows up on trends observed last week: holding mainstream media accountable, enforcement tactics, and immigration’s positive effect on the economy.
THE NATIVIST LOBBY HAS INSINUATED ITSELF into the media dialogue on immigration to all our detriment. They create a false boogeyman of danger and parasitism, and promote the impression that the only response is a harsh, punitive one doled out in cuffs or a cell. The results of the February Bellingham raids are in, and put the lie to this screech of extremist thought.
THE WAR ON DRUGS HAS RETURNED even though under increased militarization, drug production actually goes up, as does the body count, while the seizure of drugs decreases. All the facts in hand show, inarguably, that the Drug War model is a failed method of dealing with immigration—even though President Obama seems intent to resurrect it.
In the modern world, borders do not separate families, nor commerce, nor soldiers, nor bank accounts and their owners. And NAFTA has allowed Mexico’s corn crop to be so devalued that Mexico—the land where the plant was born roughly 5,000 years ago—now imports corn, forcing streams of campesinos to migrate north…where we lock them up.
THOUGH WORKING TO CLOSE Guantánamo, peppering his speech with talk of law and order, and restoring US image to the world abroad, Obama still risks muddying up his accomplishments with a blatant hypocrisy: we cannot lead the way on liberty or justice when investing in detention systems from Arizona to Iraq.
House of Nezua
the XOLAGRAFIK theater!
