Immigrants’ Greatest Potential Ally -- American Women

Story tools

A A AResize

New America Media, Commentary, Elena Shore, Posted: May 04, 2012

A new report by the Pew Hispanic Center documents a trend that reporters have been covering anecdotally for several years: we are now seeing net-zero immigration from Mexico to the United States.

The factors that may have contributed to this change – high U.S. unemployment, a Mexican economy that is recovering more rapidly, a low Mexican birthrate, and increased immigration enforcement – all point in one direction: The number of people moving to Mexico from the United States is equal to -- or greater than -- the number of people coming into the country from Mexico.

But with a record number of state and local laws cracking down on undocumented immigrants, this hardly means an end to the anti-immigrant sentiment that has taken root in America.

That’s because, as blogger Mario Solis-Marich of the blog MarioWire once said, immigration restriction has never really been about border enforcement; it's about brown people living in their towns and communities.

And with the Mexican American population booming -- through birth, not immigration – the new target of anti-immigrant and anti-Latino hysteria is now the pregnant mother.

By 2050, Latinos will represent an estimated 30 percent of the U.S. population, according to census figures. The majority of this population growth, especially for Mexican Americans, is not from immigration, but from U.S.-born children.

The Latina mother -- who has the power to change the demographics of this country through childbirth -- has replaced the male immigrant worker as the new threat for many nativist Americans.

She also has become the target of a new wave of legislation.

2011 saw a record number of laws cracking down on immigrants -- and a record number of laws limiting reproductive rights. At the center of these attacks are immigrant women, who are struggling to keep their families together amid record detentions and deportations; and fighting for reproductive health care even as their access to basic health services is becoming more and more restricted.

The push to repeal the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, to ban birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants, is the latest example of the use of anti-immigrant laws to attack women. This movement, which is expected to make a comeback after the presidential elections, isn’t likely to succeed – after all, changing the Constitution is extremely difficult to do – but it already has been successful in changing the conversation around immigration and giving anti-immigrant hardliners a platform in the public discourse.

Laws limiting reproductive rights have also been used to attack immigrants. Last month, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman vetoed a bill that would give undocumented immigrant mothers access to prenatal care. The Nebraska state legislature ended up overriding his veto – but to do this, they essentially argued that fetuses had more rights than their mothers, a bizarre debate that reflected the way we as a country devalue and dehumanize immigrant mothers.

Nowhere is this dehumanization more evident than in the shackling of women immigrant detainees during childbirth. New America Media reported on the practice in Arizona’s immigration detention centers in January 2010. Just this year, Arizona became the 15th state to outlaw the practice.

Meanwhile, immigrant women and their families are impacted every day by an immigration enforcement policy that separates families through detention and deportation, and sometimes causes mothers to lose parental rights over their own children. In the first six months of 2011, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 46,000 parents of U.S.-citizen children. And at least 5,100 children currently living in foster care are prevented from uniting with their detained or deported parents, according to a report by Applied Research Center.

In 2009 New America Media commissioned a multilingual poll of women immigrants in the U.S., and found that the majority of respondents said they came to this country "to keep their families together." This reality stands in stark contrast to the image of the lone male worker who left his family to find work in the United States.

But there was something even more surprising that we discovered as a result of our poll.

As we traveled across the country presenting the findings of our poll, we found that there was an enormous untapped audience for whom the story of women immigrants had a special resonance: American women.

That’s because immigration is, at its heart, a women’s issue.

Immigrant women are struggling to protect their rights as mothers – from access to prenatal care to keeping their parental rights. They are fighting for their rights as workers -- from equal pay to fair working conditions free from sexual harassment and assault. They are fighting to keep their families and communities together, despite an immigration enforcement policy that is making this simple desire a Herculean task.

The struggles of immigrant women in America today are the struggles of all women.

And as soon as they are able to make this connection, to see immigration as “our” issue, not “theirs,” American women could very well be game-changers in the way our country deals with immigrants.

This year, New America Media has been meeting with women leaders across the country to help foster this conversation.

After organizing Alabama’s first ethnic media gathering last year, we returned to Birmingham this year in partnership with the We Belong Together campaign to bring together women’s rights and immigrants’ rights leaders to oppose Alabama’s HB 56 and other unjust laws.

We are also working to expand reporting on the intersection of immigration and gender.

Last month we brought 10 journalism fellows from ethnic and mainstream media news outlets across the country to Washington, D.C., where they met with experts in immigration, women’s rights, human trafficking and reproductive rights. Reporters learned how to apply a gender lens to immigration; and activists discussed how the immigrant rights and women’s rights movements – too often working in silos – could join together to work toward common goals.

Little by little, we hope that the work being done by New America Media and other organizations will help persuade American women that violations against the rights of immigrants are violations against all women.

From the shackling of women immigrant detainees to the effective kidnapping of American-born children whose parents are deported, we are witnessing a humanitarian crisis in our country being carried out against women immigrants.

And American women from all backgrounds have the power to stop it.

Elena Shore is editor and co-director of New America Media’s Women Immigrants Project.

The Spanish version of this column ran on HuffPost Voces.

Comments

Anonymous

Posted May 5 2012

If the majority of Americans stand with the TEA PARTY, they will enforce our immigration laws. The original 1986 Immigration Control and Reform Act will not be undermined, by either the Democrats or Republicans. Those politicians responsible for giving into pressure groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the ACLU, Unions, Church hierarchy and the radical minority groups, will be ejected from office. Since President Ronald Reagan signed the Simpson/ Mazzoli bill those in power have blatantly ignored these laws, until illegal immigration with its hundreds of thousands of criminals; drunk drivers causing carnage on our roads, in ever increasing numbers. My way of thinking and the growing numbers of within the Constitutional Tea Party membership, local police should every right to check a person’s identity as they do today in most countries.

The incidents of daily murders, home invasion robberies, assaults, battery and the most malignant of crimes of child molestations. IRS under reported to some degree the tax fraud in billions of dollars in child credits. THE TEA PARTY WILL PUNISH STATES WHO HAVE VIOLATED THE LAW BY IMPLEMENTING SO-CALLED SANCTUARY CITIES. The Illegal parents should take full responsibility for breaking our laws with their kid’s and expect American taxpayers to pay their education, health care, then demand a DREAM ACT law. My children or any other citizen gets special privileges for any of our kid, certainly for rising college costs? Senator Rubio, Mitt Romney better be careful what they imply, that most Tea Party leaders are not going along with the Dream Act, until they fully convince Americans are not going to be stuck with the bill or another rush of Chain Migration of family members?

SO ALL THE ILLEGAL ALIENS AND THEIR FOOTHOLD KIDS ARE EXITING ALABAMA AND OTHER STATES? WELL GUESS WHAT? THE STATES THAT ARE MORE LENIENT TOWARDS FOREIGN NATIONALS WILL HAVE NEW ARRIVALS SCRAMBLING FOR PUBLIC WELFARE. THEY DESERVE EVERY ILLEGAL ALIEN THEY GET AND HAVE TO SUPPORT.

The near half a million pregnant women annually who have crossed borders or arrived by plane, to take advantage of the 50 states welfare programs, including free natal care, food stamps, low income housing. The fraudulent use of ID’s to gain employment or nefarious means of exploiting an unsuspecting victim’s credit; social security numbers relived from new born babies, too young to understand that their future is been compromised. Even the newly deceased have been violated, by the old Social security number being used by illegal migrants and immigrants to gain employment?

We don’t need Obama’s or his confederates Comprehensive Immigration package as the last one was rife with fraud, and millions more nationals turning up using Chain Migration to get a toehold in this country. Some amendments may be granted such as a reorganized, regulated Guest worker program, similar to the 1940’s “Bracero” employment from South of our border. But it must be overseen, to stop violations of the law, with the farmers paying their share towards benefits and not loading up taxpayers with the money burden. Laws must be enforced to halt millions of poverty motivated people arriving here, that eventually Americans are forced to pay in unfunded mandates. Lastly only immigrants possessing excellent credentials in the Sciences, engineering and technical applications should be appraised for instant work visas. Intermediate and low moderately skilled persons should not be admitted, unless under special circumstances and not by the millions businesses are sponsoring every year. We must train our own young folks, not open the doors continuously to foreign immigrants.

Until the border is fully sealed, as it would have been in the 2006 Secure Fence Act, with double layer fences, adorned with razor wire. A new innovation as indicated by American Patrol, Glenn Spencer’s state of technology sensor’s, is a unit that can detect human activity over a amazing distance. According to Mike King, Vice President of Border Technology, Inc., developers of the Sonic Barrier (patent applied for*), tests have shown that the group of foreigners would have been detected had they approached anywhere on the 1/2 mile line of sensors. With a detection range of more than 300 feet, and with continuous coverage, the Sonic Barrier is much superior to the government conventional sensors that could bring immediate response from border agents.

Interior enforcement is just as important, to start illegal aliens leaving of their own accord? Voters need to demand from Congress, specifically from GOP House speaker, John Boehner of Ohio and Dave Camp of Michigan, as the Chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee to stop blocking the 50-state E-Verify bill. Call the central switchboard at 202-224-3121 Washington, DC. They are averse to allow the nationwide mandatory E-Verify bill to stop illegal aliens from pilfering Social Security numbers to obtain U.S. jobs. If you are really feeling enthusiastic, why don't you place a call to one of Mr. Camp's offices: 202-225-3625 Washington, DC (Ways & Means) 202-225-3561 Washington, DC (personal office) 989-631-2552 Midland, Mich. (district office) 231-929-4711 Traverse City, Mich. (district office?)

We must also adjust the 14th Amendment, the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011 (H.R.140); the country can no longer sustain the subsidizing illegal aliens of $113 billions of dollars a year, being extracted from the 50 states? Bad politicians should be thrown out of office, not excluding state Governors, Mayors, Judges and all elected officials, and replace them with Fresh Tea Party leaders who will insure everybody gets their fair share of the American Dream and enforce all laws attributed to the Constitution and the Rule of Law. NumbersUSA is maintaining a data base of all related information and you should investigate their website for the latest news.

That the farming and agricultural commerce will pay the benefits for their labor and not the state’s taxpayers. There will no importation of migrant poverty anymore, cutting off access to welfare, food stamps, and section 8 housing programs. Don’t need or should we accept any new low skilled workers, instead we need to supply our own citizens with more occupational programs. Further we must safeguard our voting system which has been compromised by the far left, its Liberal associates and Democrats. These entities those are adamant on allowing no states rights to demand the use of official picture ID to vote. Illegal aliens are voting and will again in local, state and federal elections. Another set of regulations to amend, would be a careful examination of the current visa system allowing around a million legal immigrants annually into the U.S. No further violation can be tolerated from businesses and we should only permit the highest brains in engineering, the sciences, mathematicians and computer technology professionals to immigrate.

American voters must begin to walk the path of reclaiming the ‘Rule of Law’ in the United States, by removing the corruption in Washington. Congress had strayed from the elemental principles of the Constitution, that can be said why that 62 new members of claiming Tea Party membership in the 2012 Congress. We can do more by reclaiming the senate, from the likes of Nevada Democrat Harry Reid. But not just Congress, but the state legislators as well and this can be accomplished by removing the offal of state politicians who cling to their state seats like money hungry flies. By electing the constitutional Tea Party we have the power to clean house in all tiers of federal, state, county and municipal government.

For far too long we have been intimidated by copious government. Arizona threatened in law suits by the Department of Justice. All states under ever harsher influence of the Environmental protection Agency, pushing ever increasing numbers of rules and regulation. The Department of Education that has overridden the rights of county school administrators, that is negatively illustrated by the failure within our education system. We need to rid us of the Obama voices in Congress and use the abundantly of oil, natural gas and maintain the use of solar, wind and explore new means of energy. Our deposits of petroleum could go a long way in not just solving our energy problems, but also carve away at our near 16 trillion treasury deficit.
Democrats and the hard left have no conscious, so be aware they are looking in the opposite direction when non citizens vote. Make sure your vote counts, specifically states crammed with illegal aliens and demand from your politicians, that only people who possess official picture ID vote are able to cast a vote.

I borrowed this eye opening comment from a national newspaper:

I am a public school educator and I can tell you, the numbers of Hispanics are not dropping! They are the worst offenders when it comes to our school system. We are now clothing, providing all school supplies, school uniforms where required and feeding illegal children and their parents breakfast and lunch. We also have to provide free English tutoring to Hispanic parents, and if the parents want to sit in during class time to learn the basics, they are free and encouraged to do so. Nowhere in the rest of the world can anyone go and receive all the financial gifts that the illegal’s are sucking out of our economy. Don't believe what some reporters and politicians are spewing, they are not in the trenches with elementary, middle or high school educators. It is becoming harder and harder everyday to keep good, qualified and dedicated teaching professionals in the career path they chose. We really aren't teaching any longer, it's more like crowd control, learning to speak Spanish and breaking up Latino gang fights on an everyday basis.

Anonymous

Posted May 5 2012

I borrowed this eye opening comment from a national newspaper:

Disclaimer: Comments do not necessarily reflect the views of New America Media. NAM reserves the right to edit or delete comments. Once published, comments are visible to search engines and will remain in their archives. If you do not want your identity connected to comments on this site, please refrain from commenting or use a handle or alias instead of your real name.