Thread: Illegal immigrants are part of new U.S. civil rights movemen

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Illegal immigrants are part of new U.S. civil rights movement
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 04/9/06
BY PARTHA BANERJEE
The nationwide protests for rights and respect for millions of immigrant workers and their children are generating healthy public debates on one hand, and angry backlash from anti-immigrant groups on the other.

The heart of the debate, however, is whether undocumented immigrant workers deserve equality, fairness and civil rights the American way, or to be criminalized and punished for their "crime" of being here without valid papers.

Little is mentioned about the economic contributions undocumented immigrants make to New Jersey and the United States. Even less is mentioned about the immigrants' social, political and spiritual contributions, and their incredible struggle against all odds for existence and dignity.

Undocumented laborers are an important part of our economy. A substantial portion of the roughly $5 billion they earn in New Jersey each year is spent on goods, services and taxes (such as income taxes, property taxes and excise items such as gasoline and cigarette taxes) to the benefit of our economy.

A national report puts the Social Security taxes these immigrants contribute to the system at $7 billion annually. Unlike other Americans, none of it can ever be collected in benefits. That is an enormous surplus that helps keep the Social Security system happy and running.

Restrictionist groups and politicians often exaggerate the costs to New Jersey of providing public services to undocumented workers and their families. Most undocumented immigrants do not even use hospitals unless it's an emergency, like a serious injury or the birth of a child. They just try to stay healthy, like the millions of Americans with no health insurance. Most undocumented teenagers opt out of college because they can't afford the high costs. Serious long-term problems will be created by depriving them of health and education benefits now.

Even some conservatives agree the work most undocumented immigrants perform is vital. Ken Connor, past president of Family Research Council, wrote: "Our economy depends on illegal immigrants. Every day, many of these hard-working laborers perform tasks that few Americans want to perform. Without them, the American economy would be adversely impacted. Due to declining birth rates and an aging society, there is a shortage of workers in our labor force. Without immigration, there would not be enough workers to perform jobs necessary to sustain America's economy."

Doing dishes in the back of a plush restaurant, cutting meat and scaling fish at a grocery chain, cleaning supermarket floors, sewers and bathrooms in the middle of the night, picking apples and strawberries in pesticide-laden farm fields, carrying out household chores, including caring for American babies and doing injury-prone construction work at New Jersey's homes and gardens are but a few examples of what they do.

And remember, the work (often done by Latino day laborers standing on our street corners) is unpredictable and back-breaking. Most jobs are round the clock, with subhuman wages, no benefits, little respect and rare lunch or weekend breaks.

America is on the brink of "a new awakening" in political consciousness, singer Harry Belafonte said, not unlike the struggles of the '60s. But, we still have "miles to go before we sleep." It seems the gains and pains of those struggles are now forgotten.

One hopeful note, however, is that because of the million-strong march in Los Angeles and similar mass uprisings nationwide, there's a visible change of perception on this issue. A new national poll finds that only one in four Americans supported the proposal to brand as felons undocumented immigrants and their advocates (a provision in HR-4437 the House passed in December). This is reassuring because it tells us that even with a continuous barrage of misinformation, Americans are now trying to understand the complex issue with their traditional sense of reason and compassion. This is where our hope is: a civil America.

Undocumented immigrant workers in New Jersey and across the United States are people we should be proud of and not scornful about. They work hard, raise their families and carry strong moral values. They now deserve their civil and human rights. A non-criminalizing, comprehensive immigration reform with a clear path to earned citizenship is the only pragmatic and humane solution. Anything else falls short.

It's time we embrace the new civil rights movement happening in the United States.


Partha Banerjee is executive director of the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network, Newark.

this gets my wick. I sent the attched to the chief editor, Ship hidlay, who can be reached on

shidlay@app.com

Their staff can be reached on: http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/sectio ... =CONTACTUS

Dear Mr Hidlay, This article, though well written contains several inaccuracies including:

"Illegal aliens cannot get social security benefits". They do get these in many forms including stamps, medicare plus their children get access to free eductaion which is costing taxpayers bilions of dollars. in most cases illegals are like a drug i.e. addiction for local businesses and people wanting services like gardening and leaf blowing.

they are NOT helping us bring in foreign income. In fact we are losing Billions of dollars a year to Mexico due to remittances eventually helping to create a negative balance of payments for the USA.

Also, illegals have no civil rights - I certainly didn't as a legal immigrant - They cannot be part of the US civil rights movement.

I hope you can have an article that reports the other point of view also, and gives balance to the 'story'.

BTW I am a legal immigrant who is also a US citizen now and I do believe it is deplorable to have double standards - one for illegal aliens and one for legal immigrants.

You can always tell how a story will be slanted just by the terms they use. When they call illegal aliens 'undocumented immigrant workers' and those opposed to the invasion 'anti-immigrant' or 'restrictionist', you can be sure it is not a balanced, factual story.

Most undocumented immigrants do not even use hospitals unless it's an emergency, like a serious injury or the birth of a child.

So the birth of a child is now considered an emergency? Maybe for the taxpayers it is an emergency, but cranking out anchor babies, a planned, purposeful action is hardly an emergency if you ask me.

I am also sick of this crap about how much they contribute and how they are such a positive benefit. If that were the case, you would have to assume the area with the most illegals, Los Angeles, CA, would have to be a paradise on earth by now. But that is hardly the case, as every news story reports: schools are overcrowded and failing; hospitals are being bankrupted and closed on a record scale; jails and prisons are packed with criminal felon illegal aliens; Mexican/Salvadoran and other Hispanic gang graffiti covers nearly every exposed surface; high speed chases occuring everyday, due to auto thefts perpetrated by illegals and their prolific offspring; gang banger drug trafficking, assaults, home invasion robberies and homicides are epidemic; filth and grime, due to over-population and overcrowded illegal housing is pervasive.

No one can deny these facts, so they just ignore them, and only focus on what they consider positive effects of the illegal invasion, they buy things, so they pay sales tax, well drug dealers have to buy baggies and scales, gang bangers have to buy gas for their drive-by shootings, does that make them a contribution to society?

What a bunch of .....

Most undocumented immigrants do not even use hospitals unless it's an emergency, like a serious injury or the birth of a child.

Yes they do, I know, because that's what I do for a living. Here's what they do. The go to emergency for everything, a headache, a sore throat, and they can not be denied services.
Now as for having babies, let me tell you what a good friend of mine who is a doctor in San Juan Capistrano told me "The women who are ready to have their babies wait until the pains start and then they cross the border so their babies can be born in the states"
In Torrance where I last worked for a large hospital, they opened 3 birth centers, these centers do not accept any type of insurance except Medi-Cal and cash, and I would say over 90% of the patients where Hispanics who because they were pregnant would immediately qualify for Medi-Cal and so too would the babies as soon as they were born.
I am Hispanic and when I talk to these people I can pretty much tell who just crossed the border & who’s been here for a while.

Hey dude, get a real job, like walking behind a water buffalo in India, instead of sucking the life out of Americans like you currently do.

At least this "story" is in the opinion section.

This type of crap is run daily in my local papers as "news".