Reform Immigration Now: On the Coming Demonstration in Buffalo

By Cliff Cawthon
In a nation of 309 million people very few of us are not immigrants, or the descendants of immigrants. Recently, the government of Arizona forgot our history and capitulated to the rise of violent right-wing xenophobia and passed an authoritarian immigration bill. The unconstitutional failure of Arizona reflects the nature of the federal immigration regime; a system is not sympathetic to human needs but, bureaucratized and indifferent. We are in uncertain economic and social times, and politically we shouldn’t regress to racist and simplistic thinking because of scarcity and our frustration. We need to look progressively and prophetically to creating a humane and just immigration law.

At the moment, due to immigration backlogs, labor abuse, detention conditions, and ICE workplace and home raids immigrants live in fear of a criminalizing system. In a country that prides itself for promoting freedom and equality, we do not observe or protect workers’ rights to unionize in the workplace (immigrant, resident, or citizen); and their rights during police action go largely unobserved. The most disgusting part about this is more often than not families are dehumanized and ripped apart by deportations and imprisonment.

Many organizations have condemned Arizona’s new law as racist, and its enactment follows ‘Nativist’ groups increasing their membership by 80% in 2009 (Southern Poverty Law Center). In tough economic times people are scared and angry, yet division is deadly for working people. For example, according to the NYCLU the Fiscal Policy Institute estimates that Immigrants make up 28% of post-secondary education workers. In a time that public education is being cut because of Wall St.’s folly, this 28% of the workforce represents an intelligent and vital group in our communities and the fight that must be waged for our public services and economic rights.

Lastly, what does Immigration reform mean? We argue that it means creating a system that respects the human & civil rights of immigrants and promotes jobs with justice. On Saturday, May 1st a broad coalition of organizations from around Buffalo are organizing a march and rally for the rights of immigrants and workers. We intend to create a community network by harnessing the power of music, culinary diversity, and our voices to say that ‘we can’t and we won’t wait for immigration reform’.
We urge everyone that sees the injustice in every ICE raid that brutally separates a family, denial of immigrants’ legal rights, or the exploitation of workers and immigrants in the workplace to come join us.