| No one in government pays the slightest attention to | | | | part of its territory. Then the United states decided |
| the root of the undocumented immigrants complaints | | | | to invade Mexico to occupy territories to the west |
| and demands. None of the present reform efforts in | | | | of the Rocky Mountains, California in particular.(8) |
| Congress is relevant to or addresses the true cause | | | | Colonel Ethan Allen Hitchcock, commander of the 3rd |
| of these immigrants claims for legal rights as other | | | | Infantry Regiment, wrote in his diary: "Fort Jesup, La., |
| Americans. | | | | June 30, 1845. Orders came last evening by express |
| Consider you were walking home at night. A | | | | from Washington City directing General Taylor ... |
| pickpocket, suddenly, jumps on your front with a gun | | | | immediately to proceed with his whole command to |
| pointed at you and demands your valet. Unwillingly, | | | | the extreme western border of Texas and take up |
| you surrender your valet and he lets you go. The | | | | a position on the banks of or near the Rio Grande, |
| valet contained all the money you owned. You hide in | | | | and he is to expel any arm force or Mexicans who |
| a corner and follow him to his resident. You know | | | | may cross the river."(9) The traditional border |
| you cannot face him openly to get your valet back. | | | | between Texas and Mexico had been the Nueces |
| You try to find a way to get in the house | | | | River, about 150 miles to the north, and both Mexico |
| attempting to retrieve your valet or take some of | | | | and the United states had recognized that as the |
| his belongings in return. He catches you and calls the | | | | border.(10) |
| police. Police arrests you for your illegal breaking and | | | | General Taylor's visit to the tent of his aide Hitchcock |
| entering into his house. The pickpocket denies your | | | | to discuss the move is described by the latter in his |
| claim about your valet and you are taken away for | | | | diary: "He seems to have lost all respect for Mexican |
| attempted burglary. Leaving the house, you whisper | | | | rights and is willing to be an instrument of Mr. Polk for |
| to him that you will be back to get your money. As a | | | | pushing our boundary as far west as possible."(11) |
| result of your threat, the owner places bars on the | | | | The army progressed and arrived, March 28, 1846, in |
| windows and fortifies the entrance to the house to | | | | cultivated fields and hatched-roof huts hurriedly |
| prevent happening of such incidents without thinking | | | | abandoned by the |
| that the man he robbed had a legal right to his | | | | Mexican occupants, who had fled across the river to |
| money which is now in his possession. | | | | the city of Matamoros.(12) All that was needed was |
| This is what we have been doing in regard to | | | | a military incident to begin the war that President |
| undocumented immigrants. All immigrants coming to | | | | Polk wanted. It came in April, when General Taylor's |
| the United States from any developing country, | | | | quartermaster, Colonel Cross, while riding up the Rio |
| where the American corporations have or have had | | | | Grande, disappeared. His body was found eleven |
| established business, have certain claim on the | | | | days later. It was assumed he had been killed by |
| American wealth which was accumulated as a result | | | | Mexican guerrillas. The next day (April 25), a patrol of |
| of subjugation of that country's labor force where | | | | Taylor's solders was surrounded and attacked by |
| the workers received minimal survival wages, with no | | | | Mexicans, and wiped out: sixteen dead, others |
| sick leaves, no meaningful retirement benefits or | | | | wounded, the rest captured. The Mexicans had fired |
| health care, and working long hours under | | | | the first shot. They had done what the American |
| excruciating work environment. They are entitled to | | | | government wanted. It did not matter that they |
| attain legal status, (1) social benefits such as health | | | | were defending their country against foreign |
| care and education for themselves and their children | | | | occupation. |
| for which their present and previous generations of | | | | Colonel Hitchcock had predicted: "I have said from |
| workers in their native country were entitled but | | | | the first that the United States are the aggressors. ... |
| were denied by their American employers. | | | | We have not one particle of right to be here. ... It |
| The U.S. national and state governments are also | | | | looks as if the government sent a small force on |
| responsible, financially and socially, to assist the | | | | purpose to bring on a war, so as to have a pretext |
| undocumented immigrants in getting jobs, settling | | | | for taking California and as much of this country as it |
| down, and receiving social benefits accorded to the | | | | chooses, for, whatever becomes of this army, there |
| U.S. citizens. This responsibility comes from the U.S. | | | | is no doubt of a war between the United States and |
| government's bloody hands in establishing influence | | | | Mexico. ... My heart is not in this business ... but, as a |
| and dominance in their native country in order to | | | | military man, I am bound to execute orders."(13) |
| sustain stability and security for the operation of the | | | | Accordingly, the Mexican people, have every right, |
| U.S. corporate entities who ravaged the nation's | | | | historical, legal and natural, at least, as part owners of |
| resources and wealth, subjugated its working class | | | | the land taken away from them by brute force. |
| and suppressed its people through a dictatorial | | | | They have right to come to the states which were |
| government under American protection. | | | | part of the Mexican territory before the war. They |
| For example consider the power and influence of the | | | | can claim that those were their land and have legal |
| American Fruit Company in Central and South | | | | and natural right to be there. We are the aggressors |
| America established and operated for decades at the | | | | and the usurpers. Under the present international law, |
| cost of tens of thousands lives of innocent citizens | | | | no country can take the territory from another by |
| whose only crime was to have control over their | | | | force and against the will of its people. |
| own land and national resources. The history is well | | | | On August 2001 a study by North American |
| illustrative of the American direct or indirect and | | | | Integration and Development (NAID) Center |
| often bloody suppression in countries such as | | | | estimated that assumed 3 million undocumented |
| Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, | | | | immigrants from Mexico alone contributed $154 billion |
| Panama, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Vietnam, | | | | to the U.S. GDP in 2000 including $77 billion to the |
| Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, | | | | Gross State Product of California.(14) Using a higher |
| Iran and Iraq. In some of these countries the U.S. | | | | estimate of 4.5 million, their contribution rose to 220 |
| military operation had amounted to the level of | | | | billion.(15) |
| genocide such as Vietnam where 2 to 4 million human | | | | Based on all these facts, Mexican people have every |
| lives were destroyed including total population of | | | | right to enter to parts from their motherland taken |
| many villages; Indonesia, where by the help of the | | | | away from them by force and fraud and reside |
| U.S. government the socialist government of Sukarno | | | | there as their own land. They should try to take their |
| was overthrown and replaced by that of Suharto | | | | land back not by force, which is impossible, but by |
| who slaughtered about 800,000 of his own people | | | | the weapon supplied to them by the U.S. |
| and an additional 250,000 in East Timor; Iraq where, | | | | Constitution, the ballot box. For this purpose they |
| according to a recent study, 625.000 lives have been | | | | must be organized nationwide with a definite plan and |
| banished so far, nearly 99 percent being innocent | | | | coordination as how to take back their territory state |
| men, women and children. | | | | by state. They would have important allies including |
| It is interesting to notice that the American economic | | | | Latino immigrants from other countries of South and |
| elite was much harsher on its own people before | | | | Central America and a substantial number of those |
| paying attention to the economic and human | | | | from the rest of the world. They would have also |
| resources abroad. For over two centuriesuntil the | | | | sympathizers from ordinary citizens which will vote |
| early twentieth century, this elite's sole objective was | | | | for their candidates. Based on the March 2002 |
| to sustain stability, often by force, and create means | | | | Current Population Survey estimates, there are 34.5 |
| to maximize profits and accumulate wealth and | | | | million foreign-born population in the United states(16) |
| power by enslaving the poor and working class with | | | | of which 9.3 million are undocumented. Mexicans |
| nearly total disregard to their welfare even essential | | | | make up 57 percent of the total or about 5.3 million. |
| needs. For example, "The economic crisis of 1857 | | | | 23 percent or 2.2 million are from other Latin |
| brought the shoe business to a halt and the workers | | | | American countries together constituting about 80 |
| of Lynn (Massachusetts) lost their jobs. ... Prices were | | | | percent of all undocumented immigrants.(17) |
| up, wages were repeatedly cut, and by the fall of | | | | Since World War II, forty-eight nations have been |
| 1859 men were earning $3 a week and women were | | | | the subject of open U.S. military action or military |
| earning $1 a week, working sixteen hours a day."(2) | | | | assistance and, at least, twenty two nations have |
| That was 96 hours per week including Saturdays. | | | | been subject to covert operation, nearly all |
| The men made about 3 cents and women about one | | | | administered by the CIA, such as assassinations, |
| cent per hour. | | | | military coups, bribery, all aimed to sustain dictators |
| "A newspaper in North Carolina in August 1855 spoke | | | | willing to protect American economic interests. The |
| of 'hundreds of thousands of working class families | | | | presently claimed 12 million illegal immigrants in the |
| existing upon half-starvation from year to year'"(3) "in | | | | country are a very small part from the working |
| 1860s in New York City, girls sewed umbrellas from | | | | people in developing countries where the American |
| six in the morning to midnight (18 hours), earning $3 a | | | | corporations have taken enormous wealth out of |
| week from which employers deducted the cost of | | | | these countries amounting to trillions of dollars. In all |
| needles and thread. Girls who made cotton shirts | | | | fairness, American people owe them something |
| received twenty-four cents for a twelve-hour | | | | substantial in return. They should be allowed to stay |
| day."(4) "The crisis was built into a system which was | | | | and be treated like citizens, as a part payback from |
| chaotic in its nature, in which only the very rich were | | | | what we have taken from countries under our |
| secure. It was a system of periodic crisis -- 1837, | | | | present or previous subjugation. The government's |
| 1857, 1873 (and later: 1893, 1907, 1919,1929) -- that | | | | reform policy should also allow two to four million |
| wiped out small businesses and brought cold, hunger, | | | | immigrants to enter our country each year to benefit |
| and death to working people while the fortunes of | | | | from our social and economic resources while |
| the Asters, Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, Morgans, kept | | | | contributing to our social and economic well being. |
| growing through war and peace, crisis and | | | | If Congress is truly interested in solving the problem, |
| recovery."(5) | | | | This is the only rational and humane way to go. |
| W. E. B. DuBois an Afro-American intellectual who | | | | Building a protective wall, the National Guard watch, |
| came to teach at Atlanta University "saw the late | | | | or other protective measures will not stop |
| nineteen century betrayal of the Negro as part of a | | | | immigration as long as people of countries we have |
| larger happening in the United States, something | | | | benefited from their labor and resources are |
| happening not only to poor blacks, but to poor | | | | conscious of their well documented subjugation by |
| whites. In his book Black Reconstruction, written in | | | | the American economic entities. They think they |
| 1935, he said: 'God wept, but that mattered little to | | | | have a valid claim on American wealth which allows |
| an unbelieving age; what mattered most was that | | | | them a right to share in its prosperity which they |
| the world wept and still is weeping and blind with | | | | have contributed to be materialized. |
| tears and blood. For there began to rise in America in | | | | Immigration from developing countries to America will |
| 1876 a new capitalism and a new enslavement of | | | | not last for long since the U.S. economy has started |
| labor.'"(6) Regarding the expansion of the American | | | | its downfall as a result of globalization and free |
| elite's operation abroad DuBois wrote later: "Home | | | | trade.(18) Increasingly, the U.S. production of goods |
| labor in cultured lands, appeased and misled by a | | | | and services will be outsourced to countries with low |
| ballot whose power the dictatorship of vast capital | | | | costs of production and marketing, causing substantial |
| strictly curtailed, was bribed by high wage and political | | | | decrease in domestic production, increasing |
| office to unite in an exploitation of white, yellow, | | | | unemployment, decreasing wages and other benefits. |
| brown and black labor in lesser lands..."(7) | | | | As this inevitable downhill trend continues, Americans |
| More importantly, Americans who don't want | | | | will have no choice but accept low wage jobs now |
| Mexicans to immigrate, should remember or learn | | | | taken by the immigrants. All these changes will cause |
| that Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase had doubled the | | | | a decrease in immigration and the start of migration |
| territory of the United States, extending it to Rocky | | | | of Americans to countries where the jobs will be. |
| Mountains, bordering Mexico in the southwest, which | | | | Consequently, the immigration reform as proposed |
| had won its independence in a revolutionary war | | | | above would be a temporary policy. It is estimated |
| against Spain in l821. It was a large country which | | | | that by 2030 unemployment rate in the United |
| included Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, | | | | States will rise above 12 percent. People will be happy |
| California, and part from Colorado. After agitation and | | | | if they could earn enough for a modest living |
| aid from the United States, Texas broke off from | | | | standards. Luxury living standards will be history |
| Mexico in 1836 as the "Lone Star Republic" which was | | | | except for a very few super rich. Immigration will |
| brought into the Union as a state by Congress in | | | | cease to be a problem. |
| 1845 despite the fact that Mexico considered it as | | | | |