Posted on October 27, 2009 - by Rasham

America Loves an Immigrant

The topic of immigration is a very touchy subject and rightfully so. It is also one which tends to be largely one-sided; for the most part we Americans seem to be anti-immigration and unwilling to compromise long-standing immigration policies and precedence. For all of us residents it seems only natural to want to protect our valuable homeland from what is viewed as ‘the many threats of immigration’. After all, this land is ours; we earned it in what is illustrated in American literature as a lineage of struggle and war, disease and hardship, oppression and regression. We settled, built, cultivated, erected, bargained, discovered, traded, produced, and earned. Today we are more established and more empowered than ever: thankfully the concept of private property has not been challenged since its European instantiation in America, albeit a few rare instances of communal living programs and small-scale social communist movements. Yes: this land is my land because I earned it on behalf of my personal right to pursue happiness, on my turn past the drive-thru window picking up my order of deep-fried American dreams.

Not only is the land itself marked by distinct borders of control and separation, but every natural resource within is defined in terms of ownership as well. Water is harvested from native reservations, natural wells, rivers and streams, and sold to paying citizens. All forms of energy that we have been able to control and manipulate are also offered at cost to the nation’s citizens. Even those things such as jobs and education are restricted to those who are citizens or near-citizens and who participate in this ‘free nation’ by paying due taxes. The concept of private property extends beyond tangible property to include all that can be utilized for profit. The idea is that we need these resources for ourselves, that by virtue of having been born on American soil we are entitled to all of its luxuries, with little or none to spare for the national escapees and political refugees.

So when an illegal alien steps foot onto American soil he is confronted with many negative encounters, perhaps suffering extreme discrimination, retaliation, exportation, and imprisonment. A political refugee may be spared the harshest of these woes, simply based upon the strategic plays of national intelligence.

In dealing with our Mexican frenemy below our arms our crossed and our minds unwavering: we just don’t want them here. They take our jobs, drink our water, take advantage of public education, eat our food, and earn our money through organizational and local governmental programs such as welfare and Medicaid.

Or do we want them here? They take the jobs we don’t want, give reason for taxing the majority citizenry, are very easily manipulated by social and political agenda. Media and social representation of this perpetual debate is as confusing as ever. Still, our dear ole’ president Bill Clinton did build a wall. Yes, that’s right, an imitation Great Wall of China was constructed right down there in desert country to stop the ‘goo backs’ from crossing the border. There are manmade turbulent rivers which further serve to strengthen the divide, to create an even bigger deterrent than a, umm, wall. What the fuck is going on?

Whatsoever our morally handicapped federal and state officials decide to do, there is still an overwhelming majority of Americans who maintain ill sentiments towards our immigrating counterparts. So, I’ve taken the ‘liberty’ of inserting here a brief history of the United States, and a modern example of why the person who labels anyone of migratory decent an ‘illegal alien’ should himself be labeled ‘an American idiot’.

History a la Rasham Writes

First of all, this isn’t our land, and I don’t mean in the sense that my hippie friends would preach: “It belongs to the universe, man. It belongs to the spirits of the cosmic forces, man”. Although this is in part true (insert spiritual literature here), what I am intending to articulate is a simple reminder of the means by which we all arrived at our salute to the American flag: immigration. This land was not our land: we took it, violently and selfishly, destroying an entire native population (leaving the leftovers to rot on spoiled reservations) and pushing others back towards the safety line (now the Mexican border). We flooded here in waves of mass migration, from Europe on the east and Asia on the left, running from discrimination, segregation, religious persecution, to build a country and practice the same prejudicial principles that lit the fire beneath our great grandfather’s asses.

Secondly, I think it relevant to ask the question, ‘why do people continue to immigrate to the United States, threatening national security and raising our population to gross proportions?’ Well let me be the first to say that they’re not coming here for a shot at a corner office or a seat at the executive table, nor are they enticed by big Macs and classic sporting events: immigrants are coming to America because death is the only other option. Crossing miles of deserts poorly equipped, transcending oceans and seas in the cargo holds of industrial ships, compromising familial relations and personal wellbeing for a chance to survive; are these the actions of a self-seeking entrepreneur willing to make it big by stepping on the toes of his soon to be fellow citizens? Often times those who take those first few steps towards America are doing so in order to escape certain death, accepting instead death as a mere possibility in route to a freedom they may never obtain.

And every week bodies of those desperate enough to attempt travel are found, dehydrated, malnourished, stressed, and decomposed. Why would you cross a desert knowing you were then going to have to climb a wall while being the target of border control if life at home was comfortable? You wouldn’t, unless of course the self-induced acid trip absolved all sense of reason and rationality. But in the case of the immigrant majority, home is a place barren and bleak, dry and unforgiving, where sympathy is scarce and famine is as common as dust in the wind. For many immigrants entering into America, they have left a land where inhabitation is inconceivable, where food is a rarity and drinking water comes as often as the desert rains.

In some places in this world where there are such commodities they can usually come at an unfair bargain, being that an individual would certainly have to surrender to religious, social, and political rape by his powerful organizational superiors (remember the Vietnam war?). Don’t be sad, Britney spears. You’re still popular, but it isn’t for a slice of the American pie that immigrants are flocking: it’s because they are human, and as such, they have an unconditional desire to survive.

Don’t be hasty dear patriots, I hear you loud and clear. You say: “It’s not our fault their countries suck! We should not be held responsible for the prejudices of their native governments! It doesn’t justify immigrants coming to America and stealing our resources from beneath our very big noses!”

(Ahem, throat clearing, breath in, breath out) This anticipated outcry is met with mere fact: it is our fault, and thus our responsibility. America’s history of violence and war left many countries in political and social unrest: a country like Mexico has never been able to recover. But beyond this, the blatant disregard for humane standards of living in many third world countries is cause alone for blame. The powerful players in this world (American is #1) aim to spread that power in an undying effort to further bloat their bank accounts, to increase the domain of control. Monopolies of business erect factories in foreign lands (called ‘maquiladoras’ in Mexico). These factories do offer jobs for the native population, but the western management values the labor of the working class very little, paying them indecent wages, and without sponsoring union representation and the proper means by which to develop and implement fair practices and equitable policies. These practices are not unlike the slave labor of African Americans, where a ruling class imposes labor upon a weaker population, subjecting them to harsh conditions and, what we in the modern world would identify as ‘inhumane standards of employment’. In Jamaica the natives are forced to work in American factories and fields for lack of better options, being paid enough so that they may continue to work for the benefit of the employer, living in slums, diseased, disheartened, and unable to afford anything other than what is provided. As our world turns and globalism breeds new offspring, this trend in labor and manufacture is currently present in Taiwan, China, Indonesia, Philippines, and in other poor and underdeveloped countries which have little to offer in terms of cash crops and resources albeit man power.

I’ve seen the inside of these factories, and I’ve visuals of slaughterhouse conditions with which to compare. Besides the quantity of blood, there is really no difference between the two, except that one is for the doomed creatures of the world, and the other for the doomed humans of the world.

We Are the Big, Bad Wolf

In addition to abusing the poor peasantry class of various sub-nations, our Nation (under ‘God’) is guilty of harvesting resources from foreign countries, so that they may be sold for profit in America! The oil wells in Mexico are nearly depleted (their primary source of funding government operations), the growing potential of lands around the world are impoverished due to improper farming techniques lacking the authority of appropriate rules and regulations, and over-cultivation of mass crops (corn, corn, and more corn) including the exploitation of chemical/pesticide use. Some villages no longer have a natural source of drinking water as a result of water harvesting (we like our bottled water!!!), and must instead learn to live without water (never mind, humans need water) or move in order to survive.

Wait! We’re not done! The factories resting in foreign countries, because they are not subject to the stringent laws of modern society, haphazardly dispose of the toxic waste yielded through operations by releasing it onto the land. Battery factories in Mexico seep poisonous acids into the backyards of villages, which infest ground water supplies for irrigation and harvests, and into rivers and streams, the natural source of drinking water. Women bear children with birth defects, disease, deficiencies, and people die diagnosed with toxic exposure everyday on account of American negligence and abuse.

As mentioned before, our attitude towards immigrants is one tainted by the fact that we need them to maintain the health of our economy. That’s right; they provide the backbone for American business, willing to work for wages less than minimum, under the table, etc. They provide our restaurants with line cooks and dishwashers, our gas stations with attendants, our schools with janitors, our fields with crop pickers, our homes with maid service, our children with nanny service, our meat factories with cow killers, our public works committees with road service employees; how can we deny our love for the immigrant, when American employers are enamored by the reduced labor costs of business ventures? Still have a problem with immigration? Why don’t you write Wal-Mart a letter, and send a carbon copy to MacDonald’s? Until our corporate giants decide that the value of labor is worth more pennies than they pay, you can count on immigrants to be secretly adored in our modern world of fascism and mocked democracy.

I know tolerance is distasteful to some, others fear the threat of a good example. But in a dire effort to burst the American bubble, I say that immigration is necessary, unavoidable, though regrettable and unsettling in the shadows of the American beast’s quest for world domination.

So let everyone come to America!!! Welcome the weary traveler and let him find refuge in the cave of the dragon who breathes fire on all those outside the solace of his abode. Let us fill this land with the entire world’s population! Perhaps when threatened with issues of over-population and citizen revolt our mighty leaders will see their faults, and begin to rectify and repair the broken worlds. Until this happens, hug an immigrant, don’t hate. Theirs is a story more worthy of tears than the woes of the man who cries because he can’t afford cable programming.