[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 72 (Thursday, June 8, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1081-E1082]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 CIVIL RIGHTS, IMMIGRANT RIGHTS, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: A UNIFIED MOVEMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 8, 2006

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to enter into the Record, an 
editorial, entitled From Civil Rights to Immigrant Rights, published in 
the May 16, 2006 edition of the New York Carib News, by Basil Wilson on 
the CaribOpinion page. Mr. Wilson raises some pertinent issues and 
questions about the highly polarized immigration debate. The Republican 
immigration bill wants to criminalize illegal immigrants and 
individuals and organizations that support them. Claiming that illegal 
immigrants are a costly burden on legitimate taxpayers, legislation is 
being discussed to deny medical services to undocumented workers. 
Fearing that ``Latinization of America'' is a threat to American 
values, the conservatives plan to militarize the southwestern border 
but policing 1,900 miles border is very difficult, not to mention 
costly.
  The shocking revelation is that this anti-immigrant sentiment is not 
only backed by economic concerns but also by academic ideology. Samuel 
P. Huntington and the like are ``for immigration provided the dominant 
culture of white Protestantism is preserved.'' Recalling the Know 
Nothing Party of the 1840's whose goal was to expunge the ``foreign and 
unassimilatable Irish Catholics,'' Mr. Wilson deplores the 
generalization of the supremacists that Mexican immigrants are 
unwilling to be integrated into American society. Even if that were the 
case, the history of Black America proves that assimilation alone is 
not the answer. The civil rights movement abolished the 
institutionalized segregation but racism has not disappeared from 
America. More importantly the power relation with white America has not 
changed. ``The black commitment to integration did not ease the white 
backlash and the immigrant assimilation will not mitigate the 
resistance to the browning of America.'' The struggle of today's 
immigrants is about first class citizenship. The 11.5 million immigrant 
workers who are an integral part of the American society deserve their 
rightful place.
  I join Mr. Wilson in urging that the movements for civil rights, 
immigrant rights and social justice should join forces to free America 
from the grip of its historical racism.

              [From the New York CaribNews, May 16, 2006]

                 From Civil Rights to Immigrant Rights

                           (By Basil Wilson)

       The mass demonstrations on May 1, 2006, dramatized the 
     rights of immigrants and their capacity to mobilize on the 
     part of Hispanic Americans. Mass numbers took to the streets 
     in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, etc. The mass 
     mobilization has unsurprisingly triggered a white backlash 
     from segments of white civil society who were opposed to any 
     form of legalization of undocumented workers. Like the civil 
     rights movement of the 1960s, the immigrant rights movement 
     that has been launched in 2006, seeks legislation in Congress 
     to redress their grievances.
       Paradoxically, it was the proposed bill passed in the House 
     of Representatives on December 17, 2005 which precipitated 
     the immigrant rights movement. The Republican Bill sought to 
     criminalize visitors staying beyond their stay or crossing 
     the borders illegally. The proposed legislation seeks to 
     criminalize individuals and organizations that provide 
     support for illegal immigrants. This extreme legislation 
     reveal the high state of polarization in the country 
     regarding what is to be done with 11.5 million illegal 
     immigrants who take part in the day to day life of American 
     society. The immigration debate like the civil rights debate 
     evokes deep emotions among white Americans who view the 
     Latinization of America as constituting a threat to 
     Protestant hegemony.
       Republican conservatives have somewhat sanitized their 
     position since immigrants have taken to the streets. 
     Representatives in the House like Tancredo and Sensenbrenner 
     insist that they are for legal immigration but vehemently 
     oppose amnesty as that would undermine the rule of law in the 
     country. The salient issue for the conservative wing of the 
     Republican Party is the sealing of the borders. Since the 
     1996 immigration legislation, the United States Congress has 
     allocated billions of dollars to protect the 1,900 mile 
     border between Mexico and America. The Immigration and Custom 
     Enforcement division under the rubric of Homeland Security 
     has been using state of the art technology, helicopters, and 
     increased patrols to stem the tidal wave of immigrants 
     streaming across the unsealed border. There is strong 
     sentiment among conservatives to build a wall and to 
     militarize the border to thwart illegal aliens from crossing 
     the southwest border. The truth of the matter is that the 
     policing of 1,900 mile border is a trying task. That 
     situation becomes even more challenging when so many Mexican 
     and Central American workers find themselves succumbing to an 
     increasingly immiserated state.
       Republican conservatives make the case that illegal 
     immigrants are a costly burden on the backs of legitimate 
     taxpayers. The accusation is that illegal aliens are 
     overcrowding the public school system and clogging the 
     emergency wards of hospitals. There is even legislation 
     underway in the House of Representatives to prevent hospitals 
     from providing emerging service to undocumented workers.
       The level of polarization is not driven just by economics. 
     Economics provide a respectable cover for the debate. The 
     recent study authored by the Harvard scholar, Samuel 
     Huntington, Who Are We? The Challenge to America's National 
     Identity unmasks the true roots of the national hysteria. 
     Huntington in 1996 wrote. For the Harvard scholar, the new 
     danger was the clash of civilization between Islam and the 
     West. Those fault lines were particularly volcanic and the 
     war in the Middle East is manifestation of that collision 
     between Islamic civilization and the encroaching military arm 
     of western civilization. The Huntingtons of the world are 
     preoccupied with the preserving of American military hegemony 
     and the only way that the hegemony can be sustained is for 
     America to pursue policies aimed at the subjugation of 
     peoples committed to the post-colonial principle of self-
     determination.
       Huntington's point of departure vis-a-vis migration is 
     identical to his position on world civilization. He is for 
     immigration provided the dominant culture of white 
     protestantism is preserved. Huntington's position is that the 
     volume and cultural distinctiveness of the new immigration 
     poses a threat to American civilization. His wrath is aimed 
     not just at immigrants but Mexican immigrants in particular. 
     In his view, the former epochs of mass migration were 
     unthreatening because the Irish wave of the

[[Page E1082]]

     1840s and the Southern Europe phase of 1890-1920s were 
     assimilatable unlike the present wave of Mexicans.
       The previous immigrant waves generated the same 
     histrionics. In the 1840s, the Know Nothing Party was created 
     to purge the country of the foreign ad unassimilatable Irish 
     Catholics. White Anglo-Saxon Protestants argued that Italians 
     and Jews were not assimilatable. Italians and Jews were not 
     seen as white and were not given that status until after 
     Hitler's genocide in World War II.
       Huntington sees the Mexicans as constituting a threat to 
     values that made America great--the values of hard work, love 
     of family, and a unitary cultural system. According to 
     Huntington's weltanschauung, the concentration of Mexicans in 
     the southwest constitutes a threat to American loyalty. He 
     perceives that the loyalty to Mexico, the difference in 
     culture, the language clash will invariably lead to two 
     Americas. He throws data into the mix and argues that 
     Mexicans have not shown a propensity to learn the language or 
     a willingness to show loyalty to America. In the 2004 
     Presidential election, a majority of the Hispanic community 
     supported the war in Iraq. In contrast blacks overwhelmingly 
     opposed the war.
       The response to the mass mobilization on the part of the 
     Hispanic community on May 1, 2006 and previous demonstrations 
     reflects the deep asundering in the American society. The 
     detractors have been critical of Mexican or other foreign 
     flags. The singing of the national anthem in Spanish sparked 
     vehement emotions and brought to the fore issues of 
     patriotism and dual loyalties.
       White America likes to be flattered. Martin Luther King and 
     the civil rights leadership understood the importance of 
     flattery to persuade a majority of Americans to the 
     correctness of toppling Jim Crow. Black people sought to be 
     assimilated into America. The civil rights movement was about 
     building an integrated society consolidating the cultural 
     system. The immigrant movement is about Mexicans and others 
     taking their rightful position in American society. 
     Immigrants have taken great risk to enter America's borders 
     to become American. One sees the magnetic force of American 
     culture and by the second generation of immigrants, they 
     become indistinguishable from indigenous Americans.
       The black commitment to integration did not ease the white 
     backlash and the immigrants to assimilation will not mitigate 
     the resistance to the browning of America. There is a 
     convergence of the civil rights movement, the immigrant 
     rights movement and the movement for social justice. Although 
     the civil rights movement accomplished the abolition of de 
     jure segregation with the passage of the Civil Rights Bill in 
     1964, the Voting Rights Act in 1965, the Housing Rights Act 
     of 1968 and the Immigration Legislation of 1965, 
     institutionalized racism has not disappeared.
       Racism persists but in a less truculent form. In the post 
     civil rights era, the black community finds itself in a far 
     more variegated state. There has been some expansion in 
     the ranks of the black middle class. The working class has 
     become more precarious and even though there is a 
     reduction in poverty, there has been a sharp rise in the 
     ranks of the incarcerated. Nonetheless, there has been no 
     change in the power relationships with white America. 
     Power is far from being variegated.
       There is increased black representation in politics but the 
     black community finds itself still in a state of 
     powerlessness. Black people are not catching hell in America 
     because of the massive influx of legal and illegal 
     immigrants. There are sectors of the economy where illegal 
     immigrants occupy niches such as in construction that black 
     workers could fill that void. There are black spokespersons 
     who see illegal immigrants as the reason why black men are 
     being left behind.
       The immigrant struggle is synonymous with the black 
     struggle. The struggle of the immigrants is about first class 
     citizenship. In American society, like so many other 
     societies, there is a need to have someone beneath to stomp 
     on perennially. That is what whites sought to do with blacks 
     from the genesis of the society until now. That is what poor 
     whites relished in the Jim Crow years and continue to sustain 
     that asymmetrical relationship. If black labor is degraded, 
     then all labor is degraded. The immigrant movement is about 
     worker's rights and the recognition that illegal workers who 
     have been for decades are entitled to emancipation from 
     deportation, to live in human dignity. That is a condition 
     that black people and all people of color in American society 
     can identify. The caricaturizing of Mexicans is no different 
     from age-old dehumanization of black people. Huntington and 
     others of his ilk are oblivious to their supremacist 
     worldview which is so entangled with America's view of 
     military hegemony.
       This other worldview is possible but the possibility for 
     this other world is enhanced if white supremacy on the 
     national stage and on the world stage is obliterated. It will 
     only come about when America recognizes the pluralistic state 
     of the world and that America's role is not about the 
     building of walls or engaging in inhumane forms of mass 
     deportation. America has had to adapt to the millions of 
     Africans who came ashore beginning in 1619 and now constitute 
     an integral part of America's multi-racial society.
       The 12 million immigrants must become an integral part of 
     America. The change in status from their undocumented 
     precarious position will enable them to have access to higher 
     education and social programs to improve the conditions of 
     their existence. America is split down the middle on the 
     rights of immigrants. This is a difficult time for America. 
     It is confused about its role in the world. Frederick 
     Douglass, the great abolitionist recognized that no entity 
     gives up power willingly. The significance of the black and 
     brown movement is the capacity to forge links with the other 
     America to force America from the trappings of white 
     supremacy. The test of the immigrant movement will be its 
     staying power. The battle for immigrant rights has only just 
     begun.

                          ____________________