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Local News & Opinion
05.07 YouthWorks Campaign Needs Support for Summer Jobs Books, Arts & Education
05.15 Frances Fox Piven's "Challenging Authority" 05.15 Major Omissions Flaw Book on Global Economics 05.14 George W. Bush’s Other Undeclared War: NCLB 05.13 New Buchanan Book: Anglo-American Ascendancy Lost in Unnecessary Wars 04.30 A Litany of Horrors 04.17 Peter Hallward's "Damming the Flood" (Part II) Letters
Ref. : Letters to the editor Health & Environment
05.12 The World above 350 ppm CO2 04.28 Green Scare State Terrorism 04.21 Hunger Plagues Haiti and the World 04.16 WORLD FACING HUGE NEW CHALLENGE ON FOOD FRONT Ref. : Single-Payer FAQ Ref. : Environmental Health News Ref. : Sundance Channel's THE GREEN Ref. : What is Global Warming, and what can citizens do about it? Ref. : Global Warming Links Ref. : Health & Nutrition Links Media Watching
05.06 US Media Trivializes Campaign 2008 05.06 Death's Factotum: Michael Gordon and the Times Pour Pentagon Poison into Nation's Ear 05.05 TV News Blackout on Pentagon Pundits 05.05 Color-Coded: Jeremiah Wright and the Real Deal on Race 05.02 The Right's America-Hating Preacher 04.23 Pentagon Pundits 04.22 US News Media's Latest Disgrace 04.18 ABC's Debate Debacle 04.16 Reprising the Genocidal Fury of Thomas Friedman US Politics, Policy & Culture
05.16 Danger: Tough Talk & Wishful Thinking 05.14 Bush Operative Pushes Voter-ID Law 05.13 Hillary Clinton, John McCain and the "Stupid" Vote 05.13 McCain and the 'Unitary Executive' 05.09 The Democratic Presidential Race: A View from Pennsylvania 05.08 Serving the System: Corporate Control of U.S. Would Continue Under Obama 05.06 A Republican for Barack 05.05 Thinking About Voter Registrations 05.05 'Beware the Terrible Simplifiers' 05.01 U.S. Military Coordinated Day Of Prayer Events With Christian Right Group 04.30 John McCain Won’t Be Looking for the Union Label 04.30 Put Him Out With the Pastor! 04.25 Clinton Courted Racists in the Pennsylvania Primary 04.24 Groundbreaking Book Documents Widespread Election Fraud; Warns Elections Vulnerable to Theft 04.24 Triviamongering in the U.S. presidential race 04.24 Campaign 1988 Lives! 04.23 Hillary Clinton's Monstrous Threat 04.21 Brilliant Disguise: Bush Torture, Obama and The Boss 04.19 The Clintons, Triangulating with China 04.18 American Hegemony Is Not Guaranteed 04.18 Are the Clintons Playing Joe McCarthy? 04.17 The Weather Underground 'Theme' US High Crimes & Incompetence
05.16 Election Fraud, not Voter Fraud, is a National Security Threat 05.16 Constitution’s Checks, Balances Failing As Bush Prepares Iran Attack 05.14 Falling Cedars: Fomenting War in Lebanon -- and Beyond 05.12 Armed Truce: Surging Into Slaughter on Sadr City's Jerusalem Street 05.10 Lost E-Mails Obscure 'Plame-gate' 05.09 Fallujah Revisited: Bush, Petraeus Prepare 'Cleansing' of Sadr City 05.09 Shoot, Kill, Lie, Repeat: America's New Moral Universe 05.07 Willing Executioners: America's Bipartisan Atrocity Deepens in Somalia 05.05 The Terror Master: Bush Orders Covert 'Surge' Against Iran, with Dem Support 05.01 American and Israeli War Crimes: Same Atrocities, Different Responses 04.30 Halliburton Bribe Case Haunts Cheney 04.29 Getting Over Scalia 04.29 The Iraq War Morphs Into The Iranian War 04.28 The Torture Election 04.28 The Clock is Ticking for A US Attack on Iran 04.28 The Bush Team's Geneva Hypocrisy 04.25 New Terror War Atrocity: Beheading the Innocent for Bush in Somalia 04.23 Glorious Fruits of the War for Civilization 04.22 VA Tried to Conceal Extent of Attempted Veteran Suicides, Email Shows 04.21 What About the War, Benedict? 04.18 Updating Sami Al-Arian - His Ordeal Continues 04.16 Would Obama Hold Bush Accountable? Economics & Business
05.12 Thinking About Strategies 05.08 Portrait of an Oil-Addicted Former Superpower 04.28 Thinking About Subtleties 04.23 The Oil Vice 04.22 The US Economy and the Costs of War 04.21 Thinking About Shakiness International
05.16 Africa Must Produce or Perish 05.16 Grow Them Young, Pay Them Well - Anti-Chavistas, That Is 05.12 Disturbing Stirrings - Ratcheting Up For War on Iran 05.05 Sixty Years of Palestinian Displacement, Occupation and Suffering 05.02 Feeding Moloch: Last Barriers to War on Iran Come Down 05.01 The Iranian Chessboard 05.01 Blood Diamonds, Blood Oil and Blood Food 05.01 Denying Palestinians Free Movement in the West Bank 04.30 The Ignored Lessons on the Stupidity of War 04.24 Breaking the Silence - Israeli Soldiers Speak 04.23 What the Iraq War is about We are a non-profit Internet-only newspaper publication founded in 1973. Your donation is essential to our survival.
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COMMENTARY:Unintentional Immigrants
Present debates completely obscure the distinction and ignore the fact that a large majority of undocumented Latino persons in the U.S. never intended to stay here. Most would like to simply come and go to find work for a time so they may provide a better living for their families and villages back home. Present law makes such migration impossible. In order to migrate into the U.S. from the south persons must cross the U.S. Mexico border. In the last 10 to 12 years such a crossing has become more dangerous and more expensive. In the 2004-05 fiscal year, 279 persons have died coming to "America" according to official records; this figure does not account for all deaths. Many migrants who planned to come and work for a time and return home have become unintentional immigrants; they dare not return home because they know the perils of crossing the border today. The reason the risks have increased is that the Immigration and Naturalization Service and its successor, the Department of Homeland Security, through the Border Patrol, have built miles of fences, installed listening and video monitoring devices along the border and deployed aircraft, horsemen, cyclists, and armed vehicles to discover and apprehend migrants. The fences and monitoring equipment have forced the migrants to go farther and farther into the deserts to begin their journey. The result has been escalating deaths of men, women and children from scorching heat and freezing cold, injury, snake and insect bites, and animal attacks. The trek across the desert takes three to seven days, a journey that requires carrying enough food and water for the trip, an impossible task as adequate water for the trip often weighs more than the person. Once a person has made that journey, he or she is reluctant to ever make it again because of the danger. Economics also plays a role. Increased surveillance creates greater risk for those who aid the migrants in their journey. A practice that was once made up of families with deep connections to villages is increasingly becoming the enterprise of organized, well-funded criminal elements who do not depend on their reputations for business. Unlike the families who were assisting friends and relatives, the organizations are in it purely for the money. So the migrant feels a greater threat on two fronts: the imposing U.S. militarization and the growing criminal crossing system. Few of us who work on immigration issues believe in throwing the borders open. That is no more practical than the attempt to completely close them off. Nor is it likely that most U.S. citizens would find closing the borders suitable. We simply depend too extensively on migrant labor to support our more and more ravenous lifestyles. Reform we need, but, if we are serious about immigration reform, we will recognize the distinction between migrant and immigrant. Once the distinction is made, we can reform the law to make migration possible while still protecting our borders from terrorists. Senators Kennedy and McCain have introduced legislation that goes a long way toward writing the distinction into law. Under their legislation, migrants already in the U.S. would be able to acquire a worker visa by paying a fine for crossing illegally (that is not amnesty). Through that law we would have a means to know who is in the country, where they are and for whom they have worked. Today, we know none of that about the 12 or so million who are here undocumented. Knowing who they are would leave resources to track those who do not want to be found out because they wish us harm. Second, the law provides for new work visas for persons who wish to migrate, thus assuring that our appetite for their labor will be met as others return home for a while. With the new work visas, there will be less pressure on the border a fact that will free up more money to spend on real security threats like hurricanes. Let's be reasonable and do the right thing for us and for the migrant laborer who wants to come here to work for us and support his family. Dr. Parrish W. Jones is a Minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Washington, DC. He has served as a volunteer in mission with Presbyterian Border Ministry, led numerous mission/study groups to the Mexican border, and volunteered with the Border Working Group, a coalition of faith-based organizations, to advocate for more humane border policy. He may be reached at parrish.jones@starpower.net.
Copyright © 2005 The Baltimore Chronicle.
All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Baltimore Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent. This story was published on December 16, 2005. |
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