El Pueblo Unido

I was proud to march with the thousands in Amarillo on May 1 for immigrant justice. I was energized and uplifted by what is possible when people come together.

But I am continually dismayed at the ignorance and ill will expressed by too many of my fellow citizens (read here, here and here for the sampling of letters the AGN could print; many others were too vicious for ink). People need to educate themselves with facts, not blind themselves with prejudice. And hearts must be enlightened with compassion, not darkened with exclusion.

Do some research and this is what you’ll find (thanks to the Pew Hispanic Center). Families with children make up 41% of unauthorized migrants, and 2/3 of the 4.7 million children in those families are US citizens. Three-fourths of those families are mixed with regard to citizenship, with some parents or children unauthorized and some US citizens. This is a big reason youth are so energized; Republican-proposed legislation threatens to criminalize unauthorized presence and tear families apart.

Most unauthorized adults have paying jobs (75%). The 6.3 million unauthorized workers are 4.3% of the American labor force; 92% of men and 56% of women work outside the home. Unauthorized workers dominate in service occupations, agriculture and meatpacking, construction and extractive industries, and production, installation and repair industries.

But, on average, those jobs don’t pay much; median income for immigrant workers is only $300/week; unauthorized workers earn 43% less than native workers. The system is designed to keep workers voiceless and without rights, silently exploited by businesses that benefit from their labor. This is the dirty little secret that they don’t want you to know.

Those who work and shop and rent are paying taxes. We’re not talking about a free-loaders or Reaganesque welfare queens, but hard workers doing hard jobs for a lot less than native workers earn.

It is not a crime to work hard, to seek a better life, to provide for your family, and to enrich the culture and economy where you live. Immigrants do this. Just like all hard-working Americans.

It is wrong to operate an economic system that exploits people and gives them no voice or power. It is wrong to seek to break and divide families and uproot productive lives. It is wrong to let hate and fear and racism poison the common air of our society.

The immigrant justice movement is about workers’ rights. The movement is about families. The movement is about fairness. If you’re a working man or working woman, you need to be marching with us. Don’t accept the crumbs the system hands you and deny even that to others. Stand together, not apart, and demand what’s right and fair. Most Americans have more in common with our immigrant brothers and sisters than with those whose pale hands are on the levers of economic and political power.

Immigrants will only enrich America. They always have; poor Swedish farmers like my great-grand parents, or the working families I was honored to march with. I will march again, because justice and fairness compel us to put our feet on the street and join our voices in solidarity with those whom we have common cause.