Out of Public Limelight, U.S.War on Immigrants Intensifies

*by Randy Shaw, 2008-07-21*
In the past month, the netroots and much of the political left has been
outraged by congressional passage of a new Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act (FISA). Critics claim the bill opens the door to wiretapping and other
privacy invasions, endangering our civil liberties. But while concerns are
raised over FISA, or waterboarding and torture at Guantanamo, massive
violations of the human rights of working immigrants in the United States
are ongoing. In fact, for much of 2008, the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement Agency (ICE) has systematically terrorized undocumented
immigrants to a degree that would prompt national outcry if these same acts
were occurring in other nations. Hard-working immigrants are being rounded
up like cattle and subjected to mass arrests, and a woman nine months
pregnant, stopped for a traffic violation, was taken into custody and then
handcuffed to her bed while giving birth. Politicians and activists have put
FISA and Guantanamo on the national radar, but where is the national outcry
necessary to end this systematic brutality against immigrant families?

While Democrats were focused on the Obama-Clinton race, the Bush
Administration proceeded with the most brutal attacks on immigrant workers
that this nation has seen in several decades. And either because these
attacks have primarily been carried out in small towns like Postville, Iowa
or outside major media markets, most remain unaware that these events have
even occurred.

To its credit, the *New York Times* has publicized many of these attacks,
including the account <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/us/11immig.html> of
the Postville outrage by Professor Erik Camayd-Freixas. This is the
courageous man who brought to light how nearly 400 immigrant workers were
shackled and brought to the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo, Iowa so
that they could be given Bush-style justice before being deported.

Despite the *Times* coverage, and the widespread dissemination on the
Internet of Camayd-Freixas' first-hand account of what he saw in Postville,
the outrage failed to become an ongoing news story. ICE's brutal
mistreatment of hard-working immigrants has not been the topic of Sunday
talk shows, has not become an issue in the presidential race, has got
nowhere near the attention of FISA among bloggers, and is likely little
known to most voters to this day.

*Handcuffing Woman in Labor*

Nor has the public heard much, outside the *Times*, about the traffic
stop<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/us/20immig.html>of a pregnant
Mexican woman in a Nashville suburb that resulted in her being
kept in custody for six days and then giving birth while handcuffed to her
bed. She was kept from her infant for two days and then barred from taking a
breast pump into the jail.

Nashville authorities, including Mayor Karl Dean, commend such efforts to
crackdown on undocumented immigrants. They say that the woman, Juana
Villegas, was not treated differently because of her race or immigration
status.

The United States of America thus endorses putting a woman in jail for six
days for the "crime" of driving without a license, and then cuffing her to a
bed while she is giving birth. And unlike those at Guantanamo, nobody is
claiming that the woman was a "terrorist" or "enemy combatant."

Recall how a public relations firm planted the false story that Iraqi troops
were removing incubators used by babies in Kuwaiti hospitals. This invented
horror story dominated the media and built support for the U.S. to wage war
to oust Iraq from Kuwait during the first Bush Administration.

Ms. Villegas' horror story, however, is real. And if we heard that Iran was
engaging in such treatment against Christian women giving birth, the Bush
Administration and pundits would be insisting that we invade Iran
immediately to prevent such human rights abuses.

*Why the Silence?*

The media has put immigrant issues on the back burner since the Texas
Democratic primary in March. The only ongoing national media coverage of
immigration is from Lou Dobbs, which is like giving Pat Robertson a media
monopoly on coverage of abortion rights.

None of the regular pundits on CNN or MSNBC's political shows have a
background in immigrant rights issues, and the only Latino regulars on the
former show (the latter has no Latino pundits) are Republicans.

But the underlying reason for the lack of media coverage—-a void that
results in politicians not being forced to discuss the issue—is that these
stories put the United States in a shameful light.

And the media, ever fearful of appearing "un-American," will not run ongoing
stories of the continuing human rights abuses that our government is
perpetuating against Latino immigrants.

Democrats, afraid of appearing "weak" on border control, also have avoided
making the ICE outrages a front-burner issue. Barack Obama has remained
steadfast in support of legalizing the twelve million undocumented
immigrants and has criticized ICE raids, but the Democratic Party does not
want the November elections to center on the propriety of ICE enforcement
tactics.

These ongoing war on immigrants explains why Obama already has nearly a
forty point lead on McCain among Latinos, and why he and fellow Democrats
will likely get an historic 70% of the Latino vote in November. It does not
make it any better for the immigrant victims of ICE harassment, but voters
will get payback at the polls.

Only then will the United States have a government that supports the
millions of undocumented immigrants who are an asset to communities, and
upon whose labor the nation's economy depends.

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