Commentary : Immigration blues

April 23, 2006
Updated 03:58amam (Mla time)
Belinda A. Aquino
Inquirer

SAN FRANCISCO—Hundreds of thousands of people marched on the streets of the big cities, and it was not about Iraq. It was about a chronic issue closer to home: immigration. Just a few weeks ago, an estimated half a million people demonstrated in Los Angeles, possibly the area with the biggest number of illegal aliens, mostly coming from south of the border. Even in smaller cities like Boise, Idaho and Birmingham, Alabama, thousands gathered waving placards and American flags to support the cause of immigrants.

These nationwide demonstrations were billed as "National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice." The great majority of the demonstrators were Hispanic, but there was also a large number of people of Asian, European and African backgrounds. What was the issue?

It's not just one issue, and the issues are very complex. Last December, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would have authorized the construction of a 700-mile fence along the Mexican border, made being an illegal alien in the United States a felony, and criminalized the extension of assistance by states to illegal immigrants. All these are intended to crack down on illegal aliens, speed up deportations, tighten border security, punish offenders and send a chilling message to those who enter the country illegally.

The Senate, meanwhile, came up with several compromise proposals, one of which would allow illegal immigrants who came to the States before Jan. 7, 2004 and who already have jobs to work legally for an additional six years, after which they can apply for American citizenship.

Another proposal would boost border enforcement to prevent the entry of illegals and punish employers who hire illegal workers.

Still, another measure would give illegal aliens up to five years to leave the country voluntarily before they can return legally to the United States and avail themselves of the "guest worker" program that the Bush administration wants to set up. This program is yet another puzzling issue in the ongoing immigration debates. It would admit 400,000 more workers a year; but some are skeptical about this since business interests want-and could start lobbying-to increase the numbers.

There are 11 million undocumented foreign workers in the United States, including our own Filipino TNTs. No one knows exactly how many TNTs there are, but it's a safe bet that they are mostly in populous California, the most ethnically diverse state, where it's easy to get lost in the woodwork.

Because our names are similar to Hispanic ones, it's not surprising if Filipino TNTs get lumped with the more numerous Hispanic groups. This may actually be to the Filipinos' advantage because political analysts are speculating that over the past 16 years, the millions of Mexicans who have surreptitiously entered the country are becoming a formidable political force.

Reporter Rachel Swarns of The New York Times notes that the demonstrations represented the largest effort by immigrant groups to influence public policy on immigration matters in decades. She adds, "And the scope and size of the marches have stunned politicians in Capitol Hill, as well as the church and immigrant advocacy groups organizing the demonstrations, leading some immigrant advocates to hail what they describe as the beginnings of a Hispanic civil rights movement."

An immigrant leader, Jaime Contreras, who heads the National Capital Immigration Coalition, also notes that immigrants are coming together as "we have never seen before, and it's going to keep going." Even a Republican US senator from Kansas, Sam Brownback, favors granting citizenship to illegal immigrants. "I think everybody is quite sensitive that they don't want to be on the wrong side, politically, of this group."

Can this incipient force translate itself into political muscle in the ballot box? This remains to be seen. It will for sure invite a backlash from the conservative, anti-immigrant sectors of American society. A kind of "nativism" has always existed in American history, the kind that invites irrational fears of immigrants. Also, a clear undisputed leader to unify the movement, similar to what Cesar Chavez did among California farmworkers in the 1960s, still has to emerge.

I have met several TNTs in the course of my travels in the US mainland. Their stories are really amazing-mostly about survival. It would not be prudent, of course, to talk about them openly. But some illegals who come from other countries have no qualms identifying themselves and proclaiming their beliefs. In Swarms' story, Ruben Arita, a 30-year-old illegal immigrant from Honduras, joined the Washington demonstration which demanded that Congress grant citizenship to illegal immigrants who are in the United States today.

"We want to be legal," said Arita, who has worked in construction for the last five years. "We want to live without hiding, without fear. We have to speak so that our voices are listened to and we are taken into account." He spoke passionately about the immigrants' struggles in the United States and their "humanity."

It is a tough issue that keeps recurring. Even among the immigrants themselves, the critical divide, as one economist notes, is not between legal and illegal immigration. It's between high-skilled and low-skilled immigrants. The former category-into which many South Asian engineers, for instance, fall-is definitely preferred over low-skilled immigrants who make up the majority of illegal workers. Columnist George Will, in fact, suggests an unlimited immigration policy that would admit highly educated people with math, engineering, technology and science skills that the American educational system is unable to supply.

Meanwhile, the illegals will always be on the run, exploited by employers, struggling to survive and probably singing melancholy "Immigration Blues."

Belinda A. Aquino is professor of Political Science and Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa where she is also director of the Center for Philippine Studies.