The Devil’s Highway

I’ve always been interested in immigration issues, especially as they pertain to human rights. In fact, my first internship was at an immigration law firm. While I’m definitely not lawyer and/or paper pusher material, it provided an interesting insight into very personal stories of what it takes to go to America. Recently, I read Luis Alberto Urrea’s shocking The Devil’s Highway, a book which details a harrowing cross-border trip taken by twenty-six Mexicans to the US through southern Arizona. Only fourteen survived the scorching temperatures as Urrea graphically details what happens to a person who dies of hyperthermia.

I find the growing American xenophobia, fear-mongering and right wing extremism disheartening, and on occasion, terrifying. People have forgotten in the wake of 9/11 panic that we are a country of immigrants and that one of the things that makes America unique is this diversity. Albania is 98% ethnically homogenous; Germany is 88%. The largest ethnic group in the US comes in at 66% of the population.

Maybe I cannot fully understand the situation in the Southwestern United States, but I do understand illegal immigration and the push/pull factors that drive the system: Albania is a perfect example. I asked my host sister how many Albanians she knew that had “illegally left Albania for work in Greece or Italy,” and she told me: “A zillion.” Like Mexican immigrants, Albanians leave to do the grunt work their European Union counterparts refuse to do. Like Mexicans, Albanians have a less elaborate system of “coyotes,” professional guides that escort would-be illegal immigrants over the border for hefty sums. Like Mexicans, Albanians leave mostly for financial reasons. Any complete immigration policy must address these human and economic factors. Living here has allowed me to see how people deal with poverty, broken and corrupt public systems, and an overall lack of hope. Most Americans have no idea what any of these things mean.

I agree with President Obama when he says that our immigration system is “broken.” Firstly, the system is infinitely more complicated than most people are aware of. I feel that the media does not adequately inform the public when it comes to the complexity of the issue.

Probably the largest complaint against illegal immigration is that undocumented workers enter the United States, take American jobs, don’t pay taxes and use social services that they don’t pay for. It’s hard for me to explain how wrong those statements are. In a nutshell: most workers take jobs Americans would refuse to do, they frequently pay taxes in some form, and are less likely to use social services due to fears of deportation. For those claiming they are a burden on the system, consider the costs of rounding up an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants and then deporting them. Wouldn’t it be better to give them amnesty and turn them into taxpayers, since an appeal to human rights isn’t enough by itself? Economically speaking, illegal immigrants contribute to the economy by buying goods and services in their communities. Even if they send money home they still pay bank fees. I think anti-illegal immigrant groups conveniently pick and choose statistics. If Americans want to pick fruit in the sun, let them. If you want to deport illegal immigrants, consider how many people would want to pay $20 for a couple oranges picked by Americans. Illegal immigrants fill an important need in the American economy and should be appreciated for the back breaking and often unpleasant work that they do. It is simply reality: the US benefits greatly from this arrangement and anti-illegal immigrant groups need to stop acting like this is just a taker in this Mexico/US relationship.

What would a new solution to immigration look like? First and foremost, it’s a human rights issue. We are talking about human beings whose only crime is trying to improve their lives by any means possible. They are without any legal standing, meaning that crimes against them often go unreported. Think about how this effects people brought to the US against their will: trafficking victims. Are they supposed to be punished? People, illegal and legal, deserve protection in the eyes of the law. Status shouldn’t be a prerequisite for having rights. We can agree that illegal immigrants have broken a law by entering without the proper papers, but there needs to be a solution based on amnesty. Why should people who have spent ten years here as otherwise model citizens be punished? Some people think that amnesty will increase the number of border crossings, but I think it’s just more fear tactics. A person who can’t feed their family isn’t going to be more likely to chance it just because they may get amnesty. We are talking about people who live day-to-day, something that it’s taken me a long time to understand living in a developing country. People in poverty aren’t thinking about the future, they aren’t thinking about school or the newest shiny gadget like most of us in developed countries do. They are thinking about survival and usually no more than a week in advance. They aren’t going to be reading up on amnesty status before packing a backpack and going into the desert.

A finally, no political discussion can be complete without somehow coming to the topic of terrorism. Given that most of the debate centers around the US/Mexico border, it’s very unlikely that the type of terrorists we are told to be afraid of are crossing this border. I know this is probably scary and amazing, but no border is safe. Ever. The way I see it, we have two options: to be paralyzed with the fear of an imminent attack from people who aren’t white just like us and to regard anyone of foreign extract with suspicion, or to accept the realities of life in 2010, doing what we can to avoid and prevent attacks but otherwise having the courage to live our lives and still feel more love than fear for our fellow inhabitants of earth. I overwhelmingly chose the latter.

“There should be no such thing as an illegal person on this planet.” – Raquel Rubio Goldsmith, advocate for border reforms and more human treatment of the undocumented.