ISR Issue 49, September–October 2006

E D I T O R I A L S

IMMIGRANT RIGHTS MOVEMENT

More energized, but under attack

THE MASS marches in favor of immigrant rights that took place around the country in March, April, and on May 1 signaled a new consciousness in immigrant and Latino communities. This change is confirmed in a Pew Hispanic Center report published in July. Among the report's findings:
• Latinos are more energized, but feel more discrimination;
• A majority of Latinos believe the protests mark the beginning of a new and lasting social movement;
• A majority said they would join the next demonstration in their area;
• Support for the Republican Party plummeted, not surprisingly; but there was no increase in support for the Democrats;
• The number of Latinos who believe neither the Republicans nor Democrats represent them went from 7 percent to 25 percent.
But while the marches have galvanized immigrant and Latino communities, the Right is trying to regain lost ground. The federal and local attack on immigrants has been stepped up several notches. In an effort to increase the level of fear and intimidation in immigrant communities, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE)-with additional agents and resources from the Bush administration-has stepped up its round-ups, detentions, and deportations of undocumented immigrants. There are numerous reports of targeted ICE raids in which agents have arrested additional immigrants after asking about their immigration status in the United States. In San Diego, border agents have been stopping and demanding IDs from high school students.
With federal legislation stalled in Congress, many right-wing politicians and organizations think that pushing for local and state laws is an ideal way to mobilize their constituents and recapture the initiative.
Hazleton, Pennsylvania, a town of 31,000, was thrust into the front lines of the national immigration debate when city officials passed one of the country's most extreme local laws targeting immigrants. The town's ordinance makes it illegal for people and businesses to aid undocumented workers, punishes landlords who rent to these workers, suspends licenses of businesses that hire them, and makes English the city's official language.
“It's looking like we're going to see a tidal wave of local governments stepping up to the plate on handling illegal immigration on the local level,” said Joseph Turner, executive director of the anti-immigrant group Save Our State in California, who tried but failed to meet a deadline to gather enough signatures to put an ordinance similar to Hazleton's on the fall ballot in San Bernardino. “I believe it's going to put enormous pressure on the federal government to finally act.”
Dovetailing with the politicians' attacks is the growth of extreme Right groups like the racist vigilante Minutemen. Recently in Los Angeles, for example, 200 Minutemen marched through the center of the city on the traditional route of the antiwar marches and paraded, with police protection, along the route of the May 1 and March 25 marches. An understanding of the need to confront groups like the Minutemen within the context of challenging a growing far Right that extends beyond the vigilantes is critical.
Such anti-immigrant measures aren't solely the work of Republicans and anti-immigrant groups, however.
In Colorado, the Democrat-controlled state legislature held a special five-day session in mid-July to pass eleven anti-immigrant measures that would deny most non-emergency state benefits to undocumented workers eighteen years and older-forcing people applying for benefits to first prove their legal residency. “This is tough, effective, enforceable and practical,” said Democrat Andrew Romanoff, speaker of the Colorado General Assembly, as he boasted that the Democratic Party is “tough on immigration.”
Colorado modeled its laws on similar measures passed in Georgia earlier this year, making them the states with the toughest anti-immigrant laws. Overall, twenty-seven states have passed a total of fifty-nine new anti-immigrant laws so far this year-a 25 percent increase over this time last year.
In this climate, it would be easy to think that the immigrant rights movement has lost its momentum. But this would be mistaken. All social movements, no matter how explosive, go through ups and downs, periods of advance and retreat, moments of great mobilization to periods of political preparation for the next stage of struggle.
Today, the main problem the immigrant rights movement faces is the level of organization. Many of the coalitions that successfully organized mass marches in the spring have since struggled to maintain themselves and find an organizing focus. There is a disorienting effect when entering a new period of the movement where protests are difficult to build and there is a necessity for organization building and education, which has an impact on the actual coalitions. The alliances between groups that had not previously worked together before the mass marches, though, will remain important and won't easily be broken.
The national immigrant rights' conference held in Chicago, Illinois, August 11-13, will be an important part of building a national network, which can help prepare the movement for the battles to come.