Breaking down the “figurative border”:
A call for a renewed Christian response to militarization
of the US/Mexico border and Racial Profiling against Latinos
Laura Frey
“In Reno, Nevada, upwards of 100 suspected illegal workers were arrested in raids at McDonald’s restaurants. Agents raided meatpacking plants, egg farms and a leather factory in New Bedford, Massachusetts. And in the San Francisco area, ICE agents were spotted prowling for undocumented immigrants at East Bay supermarkets, day-laborer sites, Home Depot and Wal-Mart outlets and even public libraries and schools. In New Haven, Connecticut, two days after the city approved ID cards for undocumented residents, an ICE raid resulted in the arrest of at least 29 workers.” –Peter Rosen
Since 9/11, “national security” has been a focal point of many US policies, including those related to immigration. Proposals have bounced back and forth between the US House and Senate, calling for increased numbers of Border Patrol officers, fence building, and further militarization of the southern border. Latinos in the US, whether illegal or legal, have felt the sting of growing racism. Increased militarization of the US/Mexican border has led to the use of racial based profiling by police departments and ICE agents, and has raised an anti-immigrant sentiment throughout the country.
The war on terror has increased anti-immigrant sentiments in the US, leading to further raids on areas that are highly populated by Hispanics, who are often assumed to be here illegally. In areas across the country, police departments are using racial profiling as a way to seek out undocumented immigrants. In Chandler, Arizona, the police department is notorious for using racial profiling in order to weed out illegals. In her article, Racial Profiling and Immigration Law Enforcement: Rounding Up of Usual Suspects in the Latino Community, Mary Rosen, a professor at the School of Justice & Social Inquiry at the University of Arizona, cites various examples of racial profiling committed by Chandler police officers:
“I was stopped and questioned by Chandler police and INS/Border Patrol when I stopped at a Circle K... The Chandler Police were stopping every “Mexican-looking” person as they entered or exited the store. “Non Mexican looking” people entered and exited without being stopped.”
Racial profiling against Latinos is being carried out even here in Allen County. Sherriff Dan Beck has been both highly praised and largely criticized for his active eradication of illegal immigrants. According to an article on the ACLU website, in 2005 Beck and his department began pulling over people who appeared to be of “Mexican descent” and asked not only for identification, but for immigration documents as well. The Mexican Consul in Detroit, Mich., sent a letter to Beck calling for an end to the racial profiling. In response, Beck stepped up his measures, and even petitioned to have his officers deputized by the federal government, which would give them more power to enforce immigration laws. Beck’s implementation of racial profiling in the Lima area has stirred up controversy, raising the question of how to treat those who are in the country illegally. As Mary Rosen states,
“The issue raised by this type of treatment is not whether the arrest and deportation is legal, but whether human beings are entitled to some measure of dignity and safety even when they are suspected of being in the United States illegally.”
Racial profiling has unfairly categorized Latinos as the “other” or the “alien” in today’s society. In his analysis of immigration laws, Kevin Johnson describes the formation of the “alien” label:
“It is society, with the assistance of the law, that defines who is an ‘alien,’ an institutionalized ‘other,’ and who is not. It is a society, through Congress and the courts, that determines which rights to afford ‘aliens.’ Like the social construction of race, which helps to legitimize racial subordination, the construction of the ‘alien’ has helped justify the limitation on non-citizen rights imposed by our legal system. Stigmatized as ‘aliens,’ Latinos carry a bodily ‘figurative border.’
This “figurative border” most affects those Latin Americans with a darker skin tone and those who are of the poor working class. It is not only some police officers and border control agents who use racial profiling; everyday persons living in the US have begun to assume knowledge of a person’s “legal” status based on physical factors alone. As the border has become militarized and racial profiling more prominent, citizenship appears to be embodied in skin tone. The “figurative border” Latin Americans carry with them is even more oppressive and restrictive than the proposed 700 mile fence and increased security measures along the US/Mexican border.
As various immigration reforms have failed in the House and Senate, Christians have begun supporting immigrants through peaceful means. The Catholic Church has stepped out in support of immigrant communities with groups such as the Catholic legal immigration network and Justice for immigrants, the Catholic campaign for immigration reform. Both networks have been essential in supporting just immigration legislation and working in communities where the immigrant population is high. Other groups such as the Christian Peacemaker Teams have worked with immigrants along the US/Mexican border in Arizona by calling for an end to militarization and pushing for fairer immigration law in the US. There are thousands of people in the US working for a more just way of treating immigrants, as can be seen through the work of the Catholic Church’s organizations and Brethren organizations such as the Christian Peacemaking Teams. However, there are also a vast number of Christians in the US who are staunchly opposed to undocumented immigrants in the country, or are stuck somewhere in the middle where it is most dangerous to be; neither hot nor cold.
Political affiliations have become of utmost importance in our country, which is clearly seen as we move towards an election in November. Over time, party lines have even divided up the church. Concerning immigration, this involves those who favor a more militarized border and support almost any policy that will stop illegal immigration. On the other side of the issue are those who agree that illegal immigration needs to stop, but are slightly more favorable in how immigrants are treated in the US. Caught in the middle is the vast majority of people who see the good and bad of each side of the debate, yet many of this group remain inactive. How did the church come to this division on immigration? Doesn’t Jesus call us to care for the “least of these” in the Bible? Are we not, as it says in Mark 12:31, to “love our neighbor as ourselves?” Too often in the church today we forget our call to be lovers of the poor, the oppressed, and the alien. Instead of lying with God, our affiliation first belongs to our country, our political party, or security.
When Christians examine the immigration issue, we take a look around at all the evidence concerning economic effects of immigration or how crime rates have supposedly risen due to immigration. Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador, assassinated in 1980, reminds us of this tendency to shift our affiliation from God:
“olvida la Iglesia que su misión no es de orden político, social o económico, sino de orden religiosos; pero tampoco puede olvidar que precisamente de esta misma misión religiosa derivan funciones, luces y energías que puedan servir para establecer y consolidar la comunidad humana según la ley divina”
To paraphrase Romero, the Church forgets that its mission is not political, social or economic, but religious. From this mission come works, lights and energies that can serve to establish and consolidate the human community under divine law.
All too often, we forget that our example of how to live comes not from society, but from God's word as lived out through Jesus Christ. Current immigration policies and practices in the US are creating a negative view of Latinos, allowing for increased militarization of the border and racial profiling to continue. To break down the "figurative border" Latinos in the US carry, we need to stop looking to society for answers and start looking to God. As Christians, the peaceful stance we need to take is one similar to that of Jesus, who loved and cared for the oppressed and the poor. We need to remind ourselves of who we are: a people who, when we are honest and awake, would do anything to end one another's suffering.
