Aztlan-Network-News Blog: Re: Whatever Happened to Immigration as an Election Topic? "Immigrant Nation"? "Bracero Program" between 1942 and 1964 that the

10-21-2008 @9:26 AM PST ~
Gracias for sharing this Companera Dorinda and all your great sharing of news worthy events. We all need to practice the power of unity and centralize our present on the Internet and of course out in our local communities in conversions and discussions with others .

We should accept nothing less than a complete and unconditional amnesty for Mexicanos already living here in Aztlan, with criminal background checks the same as any U.S. citizen. Any so-called Mexican-Americans still walking around in a cloud need to embrace our Mestizo heritage and we should all offer sanctuary to those escaping fascist injustice.
We will not be ignored and we are here to stay and fight it all out if need by any and all means mandatory for our general situation in the nation.
This article by Che José Angel Hernández, PhD should be posted on the
Network Aztlan Website:
http://www.networkaztlan.com/

I subscribed to the blog sourcce: http://mexicanexpulsions.blogspot.com/2008/10/whatever-happened-to-immigration-as_20.html

Educate to Liberate!

Peter S. Lopez

Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

Sacramento, California, U.S.A.

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From: dorinda moreno <fuerzamundial@gmail.com>
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Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 10:04:53 AM
Subject: [NetworkAztlan_News] Whatever Happened to Immigration as an Election Topic? "Immigrant Nation"? "Bracero Program" between 1942 and 1964 that the

On 10/21/08, Mexican Expulsions <mexican.expulsions@ gmail.com> wrote:

http://mexicanexpul sions.blogspot. com/2008/ 10/whatever- happened- to-immigration- as_20.html

Whatever Happened to Immigration as an Election Topic?
By Jose Angel Hernandez
History News Network
10/20/2008

Today is a watershed period in our history: the decline in
our economy unseen in generations, an ongoing war in Iraq,
and a historic election that may result in an African
American as President of the United States. To add to this
historical moment, we daily read about factories being
raided, about families being separated, about children
being torn from their loving mothers and fathers, and about
innocent workers being forcefully deported to Mexico and
Central America. Yet, in the debates between these
candidates, the issue of immigration has not been
discussed, nor have any questions been posed to the
candidates regarding the relationship between economies and
immigration. Indeed, the noted observer of immigration,
Marcel Suarez-Orozco of Harvard University has noted
that "the best predictor of anti-immigrant sentiment is
the economy," thus underscoring the direct relationship
between the national economy and the question of
immigration reform. Thus, the outcome of this current
election may decide how these problems and polemics get
resolved. In just a few short weeks the people of this
country will decide between John McCain and Barack Obama.

According to a 1993 piece in Foreign Affairs entitled "A
Brief History of Ethnic Cleansing," "ethnic cleansing can
be understood as the expulsion of an 'undesirable'
population from a given territory due to religious or ethnic
discrimination, political, strategic or ideological
considerations, or a combination of these.." The recent
workplace raids throughout our country and the thousands of
Mexicans and Latina/os that have borne the brunt of this
exclusion are evidence that the process of "ethnic
cleansing" via deportation raids is alive and well today
under a Republican administration. The numbers are
difficult to ascertain, but recent reports from Mexico
estimate that a million deportees have now returned to
Mexico and that 90,000 children have been abandoned at the
border as a result of these recent raids. An examination
of the historical record illustrates, following the words
of Marcelo-Suarez, that when the economic situation is
tough it is often the immigrant workers.both "legal"
and "illegal".that become the first victims of this
government response.

After the Great Depression of 1929, Republican President
Herbert Hoover implemented the forced repatriation of
Mexicans and Mexican Americans. This history is not well
known in our country, and certainly not taught in local
high schools. Some might argue that such expulsions happen
only to those who entered "illegally," yet in 1929
more "legal residents" were deported to Mexico than those
considered "illegal." It is a well documented that these
expulsions led to the well over one million people being
deported to Mexico, sixty percent of whom were actually US
citizens!

In 1954, under another well known and very beloved
Republican President, Dwight David Eisenhower, Mexicans
were forcefully removed and repatriated under a
program known as "Operation Wetback." According to the
most comprehensive study of this event entitled "Operation
Wetback: The Mass Deportation of Mexican Undocumented
Workers in 1954," Juan Ramón García notes that according
to US government estimates, approximately 1.4 million
individuals were forced or coerced to leave for Mexico.
Paradoxically, it was between 1942 and 1964 that the
governments of the US and Mexico established the well known
and periodically lauded "Bracero Program" as a way to
augment the loss of labor due to WWII. So, not only did
Mexicans and Mexican Americans participate and die
during this war, but their families and relatives were
being deported as they fought to save the world from the
grasp of fascist dictators and the false notion of "racial
superiority."

In this contemporary era we are at war with Iraq and
Latina/os of all countries and ethnicities have taken the
frontline in this war against "Global Terrorism." Once
again, while Mexican Americans fight on the frontlines in
Iraq and Afghanistan, their families are being threatened
with deportation and their communities are being terrorized
by an agency that has as its mission this species
of "ethnic cleansing." Numerous stories have appeared about
soldiers fighting both terrorists and the deportation of
their loved ones at the same time. One such story was
published by the Associated Press on August 10, 2007 was
tellingly headlined "GIs worry illegal relatives will be
deported; GIs fear about family could lower morale as
immigrants swell military ranks." In that piece, the author
noted that Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Eduardo
Gonzalez is a citizen whose wife entered the country from
Guatemala and currently in "deportation proceedings."
Gonzalez's reaction to this case sums up the contradictory
stance of these policies when he noted "If I'm willing to
die for the United States, why can't I just be allowed to
be with my family?"

Some of the first casualties of this war, in fact, were
migrants (legal and illegal) from Mexico and Guatemala.
Marine Corporal Jose A. Garibay of Costa Mesa and Pfc.
Francisco A. Martinez Flores of Los Angeles were both 21
year old Mexican migrants who lost their lives in Iraq in
March 2003. Their deaths, however, represent only the
first casualties among a longer list of ongoing
sacrifices by both legal and "illegal" migrants. According
to a September 2007 piece by Domenico Maceri of New America
Media, "Figures from the National Center for Immigration
Law show that one in 10 U.S. soldiers who have died in
Iraq have been immigrants."

Today, we have a decision to make and we have an
observation to dissect when it comes to the political
stance of the two candidates. Just two weeks ago,
Senator McCain's attack on Senator Obama regarding
immigration generated a vicious exchange between the two
obligates us to examine the longer history of Mexican
migration and Comprehensive Immigration Reform. In fact,
although McCain had a long history of bipartisanship with
immigration reform, we know that he is now against his own
bill sponsored in 2006. Senator Obama, in this regard, has
condemned the recent deportation raids but voted for a bill
to extend the border wall.

Today we must ask ourselves, as Americans of all
backgrounds, whom should we vote for? Who will uphold our
greatest tradition of being an "Immigrant Nation"? This
election will determine the future of all Americans, but it
seems that McCain's continuing contradictions only
threatens to further the Latino struggle to become full
citizens in a country that today faces the question of what
it means to be a "Nation of Immigrants."

http://hnn.us/ articles/ 55760.html