Socialist Action /July 2001
Body Count Rises Along the Border
By MIKE SCHWARTZ
Mario Castillo and Raymundo Berreda were two of
the 14 immigrant workers who were found dead in the Arizona desert in late
May. Every day thousands of people leave Mexico with the hope of finding
a decent paying job in the United States. This situation arises out of the
massive poverty that exists in Mexico due largely to the super-exploitation
carried out first by the Spanish colonizers and now by U.S. corporations.
Though most of the immigrants who flee Mexico do
make it across the border, their dreams of a better life are almost always
shattered. They find themselves working backbreaking minimum-wage jobs with
no benefits. And although they earn more in the United States than in Mexico,
they find out that things cost more in this country as well.
There's a famous quote by an immigrant who said,
"They told me that in America the streets were paved with gold, but
when I got here I found out there was no gold, the streets weren't paved,
and they expected me to pave them."
Some immigrants are captured at the border and
deported. Some are put into U.S. federal prisons for the crime of immigration.
Others like Mario and Raymundo die just trying to get here.
The government has always flip flopped on the issue
of immigration. At times it encourages immigrants to come by the tens of
thousands so companies can exploit their labor. But when the economy goes
sour, immigrants are always the first people blamed. That's when programs
like Operation Wetback are created, a program enforced in the early 1950s
when hundreds of thousands of immigrants were forcibly deported whether
or not they had documents.
The early 1990s were another period in which immigrants
became scapegoats for everything from the recession to failing schools.
The result of this sentiment was Operation Gatekeeper. The number of dead
immigrants has been steadily increasing since former President Bill Clinton
instituted Operation Gatekeeper in 1994.
Operation Gatekeeper greatly increased the amount
of money and agents used by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS),
now one of the largest armed forces in the United States. It also allowed
for military equipment to be used in order to stop immigrants from crossing
the border.
What this did was push immigrants away from the
cities and force them into much deadlier areas, such as canals of swift
flowing water, snowy mountains, and burning hot deserts. Mario and Raymundo
were just two of the latest victims.
To say that the trip is deadly is actually an understatement.
Let's put it into perspective. For years, the U.S. government pointed to
the Berlin Wall as a symbol of "socialist" repression. "Look
how many people have died trying to get from East Germany to West Germany,"
the media and the politicians shouted.
Of course, the Berlin Wall had nothing to do with
socialism; it was a tool the Stalinist bureaucrats of East Germany used
to oppress the workers who lived there. But, the heavily fortified U.S.-Mexico
border has everything to do with capitalism, and is definitely a symbol
of oppression.
In fact, in the past two years, over 800 people
have died trying to cross the border. The Mexican government claims 491
deaths last year alone. Some of these people were actually killed by the
INS. These were people who just wanted to find a job to earn a living for
themselves and their families.
These numbers show that more people have died trying
to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in the past two years than those who died
in the entire 28-year history of the Berlin Wall.
The politicians and the business owners have no
problem with the free flow of their money across borders, but they are willing
to let people die by the hundreds in their attempt to cross the border.
The fact of the matter is that workers on both
sides of the border have everything in common with each other and nothing
in common with their employers. The bosses want us to fight against each
other so we cannot join forces and fight the people who exploit us.
Workers in the United States must realize that
these are our brothers and sisters dying by the hundreds right at our doorstep.
We need to fight against those who want us to look at immigrants as our
enemies ("stealing our jobs") and want us to turn a blind eye
to the deaths of our fellow workers.
The blood of Mario, Raymundo and the thousands
of people who have died along the border is on the hands of the U.S. big
business owners and the politicians who represent their interests. We must
not forget it.
Socialist Action /July 2001 |