Opinion: Why immigration policy matters
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Several immigration stories arising this week should remind candidates, congressional reps, and voters what’s the bottom line when it comes to immigration policy.
Yesterday came news that a bailiff in Arkansas left one undocumented immigrant woman locked in a cell at a courthouse for four days without food or water, a bathroom, or any bedding. The bailiff, who has since been suspended, said he simply forgot her when he locked up for the weekend. Earlier, she had pleaded not guilty to selling pirated DVDs; the judge had required her to be held because she was an illegal immigrant. Though it was probably an honest, if awful, mistake, the woman’s lawyer, for one, says its symptomatic of a wider problem: ‘They treat Hispanics like cattle, likes less than human,’ Roy Petty told the New York Times.
Today, The Times reported that 15 illegal immigrants were found adrift offshore near San Diego, after a failed smuggling attempt, languishing for a day and a half without food or water. Worse still is another account from today’s Times, of immigration officials’ alleged refusal of medical tests and treatment demanded by doctors for a detainee who later died of penile cancer. The officials allowed only antihistamines, ibuprofen, and extra boxers. A Los Angeles federal judge ruled [pdf] that Francisco Castaneda’s family can seek damages, and had scathing things to say...
Everyone knows cancer is often deadly. Everyone knows that early diagnosis and treatment often saves lives. Everyone knows that if you deny someone the opportunity for an early diagnosis and treatment, you may be -- literally -- killing the person. Defendants’ own records bespeak of conduct that transcends negligence by miles. It bespeaks of conduct that, if true, should be taught to every law student as conduct for which the moniker “cruel” is inadequate.
And Time Magazine reviews a new Colombian film. Tim Padgett describes one scene:
A group of weary Colombian migrants, having waded across a rushing river from Guatemala to Mexico, is violently set upon by the Maras, bloodthirsty gangbangers who prowl that border corridor. Men are shot, women are raped, children are terrorized. It’s an almost daily occurrence of migrant life in this hemisphere, and the film captures it with haunting authenticity.
The director, Simon Brand, says he made the film both to show Americans the plight of immigrants and to discourage Latinos from trying to cross the border. It’s an important point to remember: the inhumanity of our current policy should move everyone, on either side of the fence, literal or political. As the editorial board wrote in 2005 (sorry, no link available):
Whether you believe the United States should take down the ‘No Trespassing’ sign from its southern border, or the ‘Help Wanted: Inquire Within’ sign, we can all agree that the country cannot continue to have it both ways, relying on workers it pretends to keep out. This game needs to end. People are dying in the desert.
And if that still doesn’t move you? There’s always the money angle. Bill Gates asked Congress for both stronger American science education and more visas for immigrant workers with high tech expertise, to keep the U.S. competitive. (Last year, Microsoft moved one of its offices to Vancouver to get around the visa cap.) And the San Francisco Chronicle reported on the spouses of those skilled workers, who can’t contribute to the U.S. economy because their visas won’t let them. Like so much with immigration, it’s an old story that’s stayed the same, thanks to political dithering.
*Photo courtesy Associated Press, of crosses hung on the border fence for those who died in the Arizona desert.