Stop buying this bullshit, people, and start asking the hard questions.
There’s this new bit of “activism,” the latest from DREAM activists, who succeed at keeping themselves relentlessly in the news through bits of staged political theatre.
According to this, “Leaders of the undocumented youth movement in the United States have crossed the border into Mexico, and plan to turn themselves in alongside other undocumented youth who left or were deported from the United States at a border crossing next week. With applications for legal admission in hand, they will demand to be allowed to return home to the United States.”
I call bullshit.
First, some context: I’ve always been cynical, suspicious, and outright distrustful of most mainstream DREAM Activists. For the most part, they support devastatingly brutal mainstream immigration “reform,” including the militarisation of immigrant communities and the border, but have received a free pass from the left/progressive English language press because of their carefully cultivated facade of radical politics.
I was recently on KPFA (my segment starts at min. 25) voicing my concerns, and I’ve written about them extensively, as in this piece. My experience with and understanding of DREAM activists comes from actually having worked with them in the past and of observing them in the present – they’re a strong presence in Chicago, where I live and work.
I do want to emphasise that this, the ability to manipulate the press while engaging in publicity stunts and affirm a damaging mainstream immigration agenda, is not true of every young undocumented person who wants or needs the DREAM Act in order to survive, and that wanting the DREAM Act doesn’t automatically make you a sell-out: We all do what we have to do to survive.
I also want to emphasise that there are many in the undocumented youth movement who have expressed opposition to the DREAM Act, on the grounds that it validates and extends the imperial, neo-colonial politics of the DREAM Act.
No one is arguing for a pure position, which is how mainstream DREAM Activists, a petulant lot who have the power of the spin machine and a slobbering progressive press at their feet, like to portray any opposition.
Moratoriums on Deportations Campaign is one of the few groups which articulates a truly radical perspective on immigration.
And with that I want to return, briefly, to this new bit of “activism.” I’ll have much more to say about this in the coming weeks but for now let me just state a few points:
This campaign obscures the brutal realities of immigration, and erases the fact that deportation is not some sexy, romantic move that people choose to choose. For most people, the prospect of deportation is terrifying and can mean a return to countries and families they wanted to leave, for any number of reasons. This video and the campaign around it makes it seem like “self-deportation” is a romantic, sexy, powerful political action that can inspire millions. This wipes out the complexity of why immigration happens: Not everyone who migrates does so for a “better life,” and not everyone who’s forced to return necessarily thinks of places they’re deported from as “home.”
In other words, this shit is complicated.
I’m also deeply, deeply cynical about the degree to which this is in any way more than a publicity stunt. It’s been my experience that such acts of so-called “civil disobedience” amongst DREAM activists, including several sit-ins and “arrests” in Chicago, have been carefully coordinated to ensure that no one really gets into any real trouble. If I’m wrong on this one, I’m wrong. But I’m just going to put my suspicions out there, in the hopes that this gets more scrutiny than past DREAM Activism.
To repeat: If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. But I’m not impressed.
Let me drive home a point, again: “Self-deportation” is a ridiculous term. It’s a legal one, sure, but here it’s used to signify something almost romantic, a matter of choice. Real deportation can mean the end of your life as you know it, literally or metaphorically, or both. The alternative to deportation is not necessarily happiness, and we need to put an end to the limbo-like existence in which millions of illegal people live (and if you’re wondering about why I prefer “illegal,” read this).
Immigration is an economic issue, and the current crisis, as I’ve said, in this piece and many others, has come about because Americans are unwilling to pay for the labour that gives us orange juice at $3 a gallon. By miring a solution to immigration in such a ridiculously romantic gesture, and with – more likely than not – the support of fat cat immigration “rights” organising groups – DREAM Activists, many of whom are in non-profits, are once again selfishly turning immigration into a problem that’s just about them.
In the process, they’re dredging up some of the well-worn clichés, like family reunification, which keep mainstream immigration groups going. But if we’re to come to any reasonable and rational discussion – leave alone any reform – on immigration, we need to dispense with romantic ideas about families and we need to stop erasing the economic causes that caused this crisis in the first place.
Don’t plagiarise any of this, in any way. I have used legal resources to punish and prevent plagiarism, and I am ruthless and persistent. I make a point of citing people and publications all the time: it’s not that hard to mention me in your work, and to refuse to do so and simply assimilate my work is plagiarism. You don’t have to agree with me to cite me properly; be an ethical grownup, and don’t make excuses for your plagiarism. Read and memorise “On Plagiarism.” There’s more forthcoming, as I point out in “The Plagiarism Papers.” If you’d like to support me, please donate and/or subscribe, or get me something from my wish list. Thank you.
