Why I'm Not Sold on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Package

Truth is a rarity these days. We rarely get an honest glimpse of what is really happening on the ground. When that truth is found, it is so amazingly and profoundly refreshing, like an ice cold glass of water in the midst of the desert heat. My heart, mind, and spirit are constantly seeking this truth, and I search for it on the daily. It exists, but it is seemingly hidden. But why though? I've been trying to figure out why.  In my attempts to figure out why mistruths are perpetuated, I've heard it helps to follow the money. Often it takes money to influence people on a massive scale. Once these figureheads are identified, it is interesting to note who controls information and how it is distributed.   It is all in the packaging. Essentially, news and information are part of a greater marketing scheme. 

We are not being told the truth when it comes to Comprehensive Immigration Reform and why we should or shouldn't be supporting it. This has a lot to do with how the debate has been framed. The public was given two adversarials to choose from in the CIR debate: bigots and human rights activists. CIR was originally presented as a compromise.  But then, of course, bigots opposed it because it wasn't bigoted enough. In response, the human rights activists became preoccupied with telling the bigots to bug off. Meanwhile, all these xenophobic people continued to make a scene about needing more border security and deporting people... and 'Merica! And.... because of the xenophobic extreme, political strategists were easily able to frame CIR as being on the human rights end of the spectrum, even when it does little to nothing to preserve human rights. Which makes it easy for everyone to forget about what we should actually be discussing - context.

Lets backtrack to the mid 2000s. Blatant and frequent injustices were occurring in Arizona and thousands upon thousands of people took to protesting in the streets on more than a few occasions. There were decries all over social media, impromptu movements, and last minute mini protests following the most deliberate and grandiose acts of oppression. Some of the protests were huge! The media barely covered it, but I was there and saw it happen. I used to show up to these actions because I felt like it was the only way to fight back, and I know many others did the same. There was a clear demand for the oppression to stop. There was solidarity. In the midst of despair there was an air of hope, strength, inspiration, and resolve.  

What happened to the strength in that movement?  The outrage? The courage? The truth? 

The oppression did not cease… but, the plug was pulled, somehow. Arguably, there are still demonstrations, but they lacked the same substance and ferocity they once had.  While the movement's fires have not become completely extinguished, the flames have become controlled. Now we have non profits putting on the majority of the demonstrations, and much of the message has been diluted. The feelings and demands of many were taken note of, compressed into a box, put into a nice pretty package decorated with revolutionary artwork, and sold as a strategy mechanism to the non-profit industrial complex.  This new package contained Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Its contents are still being sold, at the behest of brilliant marketers, to those at the heart of these movements - those of us who where there when it all began. That is what I find to be the most disheartening. This activist vs. tea party adversarial model just isn't working. There is so much missing from this discussion.

Pro CIR people often ignore this, but militarization is part of the packaging now and it definitely isn't pretty. Pretending it doesn't exist isn't going to make it go away. Why is this aspect repeatedly ignored when discussing immigration reform?  For instance, why aren't we talking about the “border surge” amendment also known as the Corker-Hoeven amendment? This amendment calls for many security measures the die hard border security folk have been begging for.  The amendment doubles the seemingly exponential amount of border patrol, and it calls for more check points, more drones, and no end in sight to the subjugation. It is also a lot of moolah!  46.3 billion for these additional measures. This part of the bill is made out the dreams and desires of all the racist people - the demands of the neo-Nazis, Jan Brewer, Joe Arpaio, Russell Pierce and the late JT Ready have been all been included in this package. Through its inclusivity, the bill really is comprehensive!  Is that acceptable though?

In selling this package, I've heard Obama declare that it will provide revenue and a boost to the economy. What? How? By funneling more funds into the military industrial complex and the prison complex? By fattening the pocketbooks of already fat and greedy prison profiteers? This is a new low being perpetuated by the non profit industrial complex.  My mind is blown with the amount of complexities they have sneakily woven into this package. 

It should be simple. Do we want militarization? No. We want the government to stop that along with this xenophobic deportation/anti brown craze that has taken over our homelands. We want the government to stop being all crazy and turning simple demands into complex issues that leave everybody confused and misguided. Just stop it. We don't win when we compromise with bigots, and when we do compromise with them, we only give them what they want. The more we concede on the bargaining table, the more we are left high and dry. The militarization of the borderlands in Arizona is making things so much worse. We also lose, because we have to give up everything we've fought for. And lets face it, for those of us from the border area, we are literally having to give up everything for this "compromise."

So what are the other aspects of Comprehensive Immigration Reform?  I keep hearing that it is this wonderful all encompassing deal which would provide a pathway for 11 million undocumented citizens to attain citizenship. That sounds great, right?  Shoot, it sounds like it… considering the beast we’ve been fighting for over a decade now. But one has to question its motives, especially when that very same bill is being promulgated by opposing forces. The gang of eight includes John McCain and Jeff Flake - foes. People that want deportation and militarization. CIR has many aspects that please these people and their supporters.  It has a lot of conflicting, contrasting hype.

I’ve been pretty jaded when I look at what a lot of these movements have become. At first, I was all about uniting and solidarity.  We needed strength in numbers, and it seemed like the only way… especially considering that the belly of the beast had media, corporations, and a huddled mass of scared zombies that chose to place the blame for every societal woe on either the undocumented or the poor. It is this strength in number paradigm that is setting us back, though.  In the interest of pleasing everyone, of getting the non profit industrial complex on our side, the movement has sold its grassroots soul, and with it, its honesty. The movement itself has become industrialized, homogenized, repressed, and toxic.

The movement has been sold to the highest bidder—and those who control the purse strings are not concerned with the real day to day struggles faced by many who were compelled to be a part of it in the first place.  That many of us have a problem with what this package holds doesn’t matter. It is being re-gifted, re-branded, and resold over and over and over again.  I see it every day.  I see many of my former activist allies going out into the world promoting this package. The problem is, they don’t even know what it is that they are selling. 

I hope that any reader of this blog, especially if you feel me on re-strategizing this whole mess of a moment for social justice, will take the time to educate her/himself on what is really going on here. If you are already educated and would like to add some insight, please do so.

If you are a CIR person who would like to prove me wrong, please by all means… I don’t want to be right about this, but nobody even argues with me about it, they just restate the main talking points promulgated by the figureheads... which leads me to the conclusion most CIR promoters are themselves deceived.

Feel free to add links, blogs, or anything more to add to the discussion, but please no lies or bullshit.

If anyone is interested, here is a starting place for those interested in additional research or for anyone who wants to understand the complexities of CIR:

Here is a youtube video explaining the CIR process proposed.

Here is the current bill.

Here is a glimpse of reading available on the militarization of the border.

Note:  I’ve borrowed the term “non-profit industrial complex” from Andrea Smith.

Here is a link to her insights about it.  

Here is another link referencing the term.

Here is a book, also.