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MADRE Stands with Immigrants' Call for Justice

May 1, 2006

MADRE, an international women's human rights organization, joins the call for "A Day without Immigrants." On Monday, May 1—a day affirming the rights of working people internationally—a renewed immigrant rights movement in the US has called for a nationwide economic strike. A broad coalition of immigrant, social justice, labor, religious, human, and civil rights organizations is asking supporters to stay home from work and not buy or sell anything.

The strike is the latest in a string of recent activities aimed at winning justice for immigrants. Undocumented immigrants, in particular, have long been forced to the margins of US society through criminalization and violence. Now, these families and communities are openly and proudly standing up for their rights. They have taken to the streets by the hundreds of thousands, peacefully demanding: genuine legalization and an optional path to citizenship (including amnesty for those deemed "illegal"); family reunification measures; fair opportunities to exercise civic rights and responsibilities; human rights and worker protections; and an end to attacks on immigrant families and communities.

These demands have broadened the immigration debate in Congress from a narrow contest between politicians promoting corporate interests (those calling for "guest workers") and politicians promoting racist xenophobia (those calling for the wall). Corporate-minded representatives of both parties, including George Bush, want to keep large numbers of undocumented immigrants in the US. These immigrant men, women, and children are the country's most exploitable labor force, automatically barred from demanding any rights or worker protections. Moreover, the option to deport people en masse (preserved in the "guest worker" proposals) enables government to simply get rid of whole sectors of the workforce should they start to drag down profits. That's what happened to millions of Mexicans when the labor shortages of World War II came to an end, demonstrating what remains true today: immigration policy is really disguised labor policy.

Then there are the xenophobes in Congress, those giving respectable voice to growing numbers of anti-immigrant hate groups. Vigilantes like the Minutemen openly cheer the thousands of killings of migrants at the US border. Ironically, people join these groups mainly because they are threatened by the same policies that spur immigration in the first place: namely, trade deals like NAFTA that have destroyed the livelihoods and educational opportunities of millions of white, working-class people in the US. Yet, instead of organizing against such policies, many people scapegoat immigrants as the source of their troubles. The dynamic surely delights those twirling through the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington, who profit at the expense of workers on both sides of the border.

In fact, the millions of Latin American immigrants in the US testify, above all, to the economic hardships that families face in their home countries. In Mexico, NAFTA has bankrupted over two million corn farmers, destroyed hundreds of small businesses, and driven down wages. As a result, the number of Mexicans living undocumented in the US has more than quadrupled since NAFTA was signed in 1994. Mass migration is always a symptom of crisis. In this case, the crisis is exacerbated by US-driven economic strategies that worsen poverty and inequality in Latin America.

MADRE reaffirms its call for US policy that:

• Upholds international human rights standards and worker protections for immigrants and non-immigrants in the US;
• Supports sustainable, equitable economic growth in Latin America; and
• Recognizes freedom of movement across borders as a human right.

The MADRE office will be closed on Monday, May 1 in support of "A Day without Immigrants."