Nazis on the Border
by: Daniel Nardini

          The U.S.-Mexico border is beginning to take on the appearance of a racist war. As if it is not bad enough we have Arizona's SB 1070 immigration law, and as if it is not bad enough we have nationalist groups like the Minutemen patrolling the border, now we have members of the National Socialist Movement (NSM) patrolling the border. Led by their leader, Jason "J.T." Ready, an ex-marine, members of the NSM now patrol the border looking for "narco-terrorists" and "illegal aliens." These people are heavily armed with semi-automatic weapons and bulletproof vests. In their view this is all a race war, and Mexicans and Central Americans are "non-whites" and therefore inferior.

       To many of us, members of the NSM would be seen as crazy, insane terrorists spewing hate and anger. In the NSM view, anyone who is not a white European is "not an American." Anyone who is not "white" does not deserve to be a U.S. citizen, and anyone who is Jewish is also not an American. These people believe that the whole of the United States should be a "homeland for whites only." That these people are nazis needs no further comment. In fact, most people would simply dismiss them as nut cases if not for the fact they have latched onto the issue of immigration. They are simply following the example set by the Minutemen---many of its membership having been infiltrated by nazis, Klansmen and white racists. Even though the NSM nuts may be "patrolling" the border, the U.S. Border Patrol is concerned that these people are not following the marching orders of the U.S. government, are not professionally trained to handle Mexicans, Central Americans, or other peoples coming into the United States, and worse are heavily armed.

        But then that is the point for the NSM members----this is a race war. By committing this action they follow in the tracks of others who look "legitimate" and therefore the NSM begins to look legitimate itself. This is what the NSM leadership wants because  they can then recruit members or sympathizers. By portraying themselves as "defenders of America" they are seen as heroes rather than extremists. And this is dangerous for many of our young people. And we have to blame the legislators in Arizona and conservatives for this. By making the whole complex issue of immigration look like a law enforcement exercise, the NSM can then make the issue look like an "us versus them" and "Americans versus the dirty Mexicans." In their twisted logic, the NSM can make themselves look like the good guys versus the bad guys "trying to protect the United States." I find all of this quite terrifying and disturbing to put it mildly.

Arizona's Ethnic Studies Cleansing
by: Daniel Nardini

     While the whole drama of Arizona's immigration law is being played out in a federal courtroom, its other controversial law, HB 2281, has for all-due-purposes fallen off the radar screen. HB 2281, also known as Arizona's new teaching law, bans any courses that teach about the "violent overthrow of the United States," teach "ethnic or racial solidarity," and "teach any form of intolerance or group hate." There is still resistance to this law, but the law is on the books, and it is very much the law of the land in Arizona. Under this law, studies on Mexican American, African American, and even Native American histories and culture cannot be taught if any of them cast a "negative" light on the United States as a whole even if what happened was true. Things like the forced deportations of not only Mexican immigrants in the 1930's but also Mexican Americans who had lived for generations in Arizona cannot be taught. It means that none of the broken treaties with the Native Americans like the Navajos can be discussed. This law applies to the public schools as well as the private schools (the exception are the Native American schools on the reservations, but there is no exception for Native American schools off the reservations).

       So the big question is why has no one challenged this law? The federal government has not challenged this law because the federal government sees it as the right of the state government to govern its own school system. This leaves a dangerous opening for other state governments to follow creating an ethnic cleansing law like Arizona's. And they can all claim that it is every state's right to make such laws to govern their own school systems. Given these circumstances, it is inexplicable why U.S. President Barack Obama does not see a dangerous Trojan Horse. With the stroke of a pen, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer wiped out one of the best ethnic studies programs not only in Arizona but in any state. The same could happen in any other state if we are not careful.

The Case of Maria Justeen Mancha
by: Daniel Nardini

        September 1, 2006, is a date then 15 year old Maria Justeen Mancha will never forget. On that date, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents broke into her parents' home in southeast Georgia and virtually ransacked the place. Heavily armed ICE agents acted very threatening and grilled the teenage girl about the legal status of her and her mother. All of the family was born and raised in the United States. The most damning thing about this immigration raid was that it was conducted at a private home without search warrants. When they found no undocumented person and no on else home the agents left without giving so much as an apology or any justification. This was not the only case such immigration raids have happened against U.S. citizens who are Latino.

          In fact, the whole raid, by an arm of the federal government, is just one more example of how government officials are penalizing people for having brown skin. At present, the Mancha family has launched a lawsuit against ICE and against the federal government. However, like everything else, the wheels of justice are extremely slow to turn and there is no guarantee that there will be an apology or compensation. As hard as it is for the Mancha family, this is the only legal recourse they have for how they were treated. The growing hatred against immigrants has become more than anything a hatefest against Latinos whether they are undocumented, legal residents or U.S. citizens. Like Maria Justeen Mancha, many are afraid of going to work, going to the grocery store, shopping, and seeing friends or having dinner at a restaurant for fear they might be the victims of some legal harassment or racist mob action.

         The threats around this country are real enough, and sadly the federal government under U.S. President Barack Obama has done a poor job of trying to reassure Latinos that their civil and human rights will be respected or of stopping extremist groups and politicians from attacking them. Even now Maria Justeen Mancha has nightmares about the incident, and is afraid of even telling people her ancestry came from Mexico. In this case, immigration reform will not change the situation. The government has in many ways started this hatefest against Latinos, and the government should be working night and day to undo this atmosphere of hate against Latinos. If Obama is serious about changing the poisoned atmosphere against Latinos, the federal government should apologize for what it did to the Mancha family and compensate them. This way they can end a good deal of Maria Justeen Mancha's nightmares.   

The Union Non-compliance Freedom Riders
by:Daniel Nardini

           In an effort to fight Arizona's SB 1070 immigration law, 550 union members from 32 unions nationwide will travel on buses from Los Angeles to Phoenix. The ride and march to follow will have three main purposes. First, all of the union membership will rally with union members in Arizona against SB 1070. Second, the union members---both from Arizona and elsewhere---will be from different ethnic and racial groups. All of the participants will be non-Hispanic white, Latino, African American, Native American and Asian. Finally, none of the union membership will be carrying "papers." No drivers' licenses, no Social Security cards, and no form of identification that could prove if they are U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residences.

            The reason is very clear. The protest is a non-compliance march against Arizona's law tht requires state police to check the identity of all believed "illegally in the country." Since none of the protestors will carry any form of identification, state police might have to arrest any and all of them. This will provide the basis for a lawsuit against the State of Arizona if the police should enforce this law. Like many pro-immigration groups, unions are interested in helping the undocumented as well as Latinos. The reason is not hard to find. Many union members are Latino, and an erosion of rights and protections for Latinos is an attack on the unions as well. Arizona's state immigration law is attacking Latino union members and giving employers a powerful and dangerous tool to not only attack union members and their unions but also to roll back union rights, better conditions in the workplace, and give employers carte blanche over what they can do to workers.

          For many of the country's unions, the Arizona immigration law is not one of law enforcement, but denying workers---whatever their legal status---the basic rights they should have to protect them from employer abuse and have their wages cut or stolen. Many Latino workers fought long and hard for what rights they have now, but laws like SB 1070 will take them away and in too many ways return Arizona to the days of legal discrimination against Latinos. If Arizona's immigration law holds, then other states might also adopt a similar law and unions will be on the frontlines of being smashed to pieces as state governments help employers destroy the unions. This is why unions are now in the forefront of the fight against this state immigration law.  

No Clemency for Crimes Against Humanity
by:Daniel Nardini

         In Chile, the Roman Catholic Church made a surprise move by proposing that the Chilean government offer clemency to those military officers and personnel who were involved in the executions, disappearances and torture of tens of thousands of Chilean civilians during the rightwing dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1989). In 1973, the Chilean military, headed by Augusto Pinochet, led a very bloody coup against the elected leftwing civilian government of Salvador Allende. The Church's proposal would only apply to those who are over 70 years old, and are either gravely ill or dying. The Church proposed this as an act of clemency. Current President Sabastian Pinera has rejected outright. Pinera has made it clear that no amount of time or jesture of humanity can ever wipe out the crimes of humanity committed by those who worked for Pinochet.

          It is still a very open wound for most Chileans. Augusto Pinochet never stood trial and therefore was never convicted before he died from old age. Of the 650 military officers and personnel from the Pinochet dictatorship who were put on trial, only 150 are serving in prison. Thousands of other military personnel who worked for the Pinochet regime have never been brought to trial let alone convicted. But the Church's attempt at showing clemency to those who have committed crimes against humanity is inexplicable. Perhaps the Church was trying to help put this terrible time behind and help to heal the country of this dark trauma. For those families who have lost a loved one, for friends who had seen their close friends murdered, and for spouses who have witnessed their husbands or wives murdered in cold blood, no clemency can be shown.

       Nevertheless the Church's proposal has split the country. Some of the younger generation who had never experienced the Pinochet era wonder why there has been no attempt at healing the country of this time. Many of the older generation who were opponents of the Pinochet regime want a full accounting from that time. Yet others from the generation under Pinochet who had benefitted under the dictator want some kind of healing process to prevent the country from eventually falling apart. One of the big problems is that almost all of those who had committed crimes against humanity have never been repentent for their atrocities. Now as then, many of those military personnel who had committed these crimes, or who had supported the Pinochet regime, still believe they did the right thing to "prevent the country from falling into chaos and communism." It is ironic that the Church's proposal for an amnesty has only divided the country further. It has only made the open wounds more raw and this black hole in the Chilean psyche that much more complicated.