Junipero Serra is not the type of immigrant anyone should strive to be, but it is fitting that he is used to promote the colonial policy of comprehensive immigration reform. His tactics to convert, assimilate, and train indigenous people to become like settlers can be compared to modern day policies intending to assimilate the immigrant. Nowadays, the parameters for CIR have included an overwhelming push for assimilation. The legal environment is ripe with anti immigrant furor. That environment is composed of English-only battle cries, bans on ethnic studies, show me your papers SB 1070, 100 mile waiver of rights SB 750, countless laws waiving laws in the name of national security, and many CIR provisions that mandate assimilation in exchange for citizenship. Militarization is a part of CIR, and it is probably the most in-your-face form of colonization that we see coming out of it. In the Southwest, it started with missions. It continues with proposed spy towers on the Tohono O'odham reservation.
Back in the day, Serra wrote about his troubles converting the Indians to Christianity. He was feeling pretty down because they didn't want to convert willingly, so his solutions to their unresponsiveness was forced coercion. If they would not readily assimilate, they were whipped, beaten, forced into labor and not allowed to leave the missions. They had to adopt the ways of the dominant society or face the consequences. If they resisted, they were beaten into submission. Indians were not permitted to leave. Once they were in, they were trapped. Families, trapped behind the mission walls, were not even permitted to carry on relationships. Serra would purposely separate children from their parents so that they wouldn't learn their culture. (View Serra's testimonies here)
The conquest of Serra and others had devastating impacts on indigenous populations. Many did not survive the mission system. It wasn’t just because of diseases, as the settlers like to argue time and again. The settlers knew they were killing the Indians. Indians were viewed as savage and inferior, and therefore the decimation in population was not a concern to the colonizer.
It is fitting that Serra's canonization is being used to continue a similar policy. The push for comprehensive immigration reform says to indigenous people on the border, “We don’t have to consult you on anything. We’re going to take your lands and militarize them and you won’t have any voice in anything. You don't matter to us.”
In today's day and age, I have to give credit to the PR people in charge. They've given Serra an image of a saint, as one who gave indigenous people the wondrous gift of Christianity and away from their so-called heathen ways. They've managed to frame Comprehensive Immigration Reform as human rights necessity, when in reality the provisions it contains are human rights atrocities. It's a giant set up. NGOs have been used to perpetuate the policy of divide and conquer.
Comprehensive immigration reform equals militarization. It means more border patrol, more harassment, guns, drones, tanks, towers, helicopters flying overhead, trespassing on Tohono O’odham land, and more migrants dying in desert.
The interests of white supremacy continue to condition immigrants, many with indigenous ancestry, to disrespect people indigenous to these lands. Not only have they been forced to leave everything they love because of colonial policies like NAFTA, but they are forced to take sides with the colonizer to survive. It is the same type of scenario indigenous peoples were forced into and why so many conceded to treaties and reservations. The system requires this assimilation in exchange for citizenship.
Immigration is caused by colonization. Immigration also perpetuates colonialism through assimilation. The only way to break this cycle is through respect towards indigenous inhabitants. Given the fuss over the pope and the dismissal of indigenous people this week, we still have a long way to go in achieving that respect.
