Evaluating Goals: Issues of Indigenous Sovereignty and Immigration

My worst fear in starting this blog was that I wouldn’t keep up with it regularly.  This semester has proven to be even more hectic than I thought it would be and I already have neglected many issues that I’ve wanted to write about.

That being said, I want to talk about goals.  I’ve set the bar pretty high.  I want social justice. My goals will not be accomplished until this country no longer promotes and perpetuates an authoritarian regime upon society and we are truly free.  Shouldn’t be too hard, right?  This is supposed to be a free country, right? I mean, just by scanning my Facebook feed on veterans day, it seems that the grand majority of everyone is in love with the concept of freedom, so why in the social justice context is freedom so extraordinarily difficult to attain?

My focus in law school has been indigenous law and policy. Though my studies, research, and life experience I have determined that indigenous people across borders and continents have been tremendously screwed out of basic rights. I am part of the movement for sovereignty, self determination, and decolonization in order to remedy this struggle.

Another issue that is constantly on my mind is immigration. I grew up 38 miles north of the border. I have experienced the constant monitoring of the Border Patrol. I often heard about bodies being found in the desert, too often women and children, who made quite the long journey only to perish in the struggle to survive. I grew up in a town right next to the Tohono O’odham Nation, a nation of which I am a member.  I grew up listening to stories of my friends and their families on the reservation – confrontations and harassment by the border patrol (I have been harassed many times myself), environmental destruction, inability to attend ceremonies with thousands of Tohono O'odham who live on the Mexican side of T.O. land, and the list goes on.

Because I spent my college days and some years after in the Tempe/Phoenix area, I became involved with the immigration struggle as I witnessed issues like rape, car theft, burglary, etc become ignored by the police as they took up the job of the border patrol and focused on immigration sweeps and arresting corn venders, fast food, and car wash workers instead. Undocumented victims of domestic violence, trafficking, and other crimes cannot call the police for help. Instead of being people one can rely on for help, Maricopa County Police have become nothing more than an armed white supremacist gang supported by the majority of white migrants (who only care about themselves) in Arizona. To put it lightly, this caused me to feel a lot of rage. I took part in marches, protests, and solidarity actions. I found a connection between the indigenous struggle and the migrant struggle, and tried to make others in the immigrant struggle aware of this connection. I was shot down. I was told that they are different struggles and that they are not connected.  

Dear people who shot me down: you are wrong. They couldn't be more connected.

Now many (not all, props to those who are awake) who I once protested with are now touting Comprehensive Immigration Reform.  I feel betrayed, even though I understand the movement was never completely with me on this issue. The compromises these folks are willing to make in order to get minor concessions from the government - to me it is unfathomable. Supporters of CIR are throwing the Tohono O'odham Nation, other indigenous border communities, and some of their very own people under a bus. Why do I think this?  The border patrol problems that existed when I was growing up have multiplied since 9/11.  CIR takes this multiplication and doubles it.  It adds trillions of dollars to more forces, drones, tanks, walls, and massive surveillance. Nothing to the failing education system, nothing to alleviate ailing economic conditions, and nothing to help out the community I came from. It is already a police state! And you know what?  The 11 million undocumented - those who Obama promises a path to citizenship... many of them will be filtered out because if you read the fine print, they still have to turn themselves in to be scrutinized for citizenship. Thousands will still be deported. This is not a compromise I am willing to ever support. Because of the concessions some are willing to make, I now I am fighting the same people I once stood in solidarity with (cough, cough, Raul Grijalva). In my view, they are still good people but have been deceived.  

I didn't intend for this blog to be this long.  Feel free to add to this discussion but don't bother if it is something like "well, when you consider the issues on the border we need security...." because I have heard it all. I constantly think and read about these issues, and if you think this, I think you are an idiot.  The more they force a police state upon us, the worse it gets.  I have so much more to say about this, but in the spirit of accomplishing things I am going to sign off for now. Peace.