No votes for immigrant scapegoating politicians

Tema Okun of Durham wrote the letter below, to tell Bev Perdue and Kay Hagan that they are losing her vote because of their attacks on undocumented immigrants, especially regarding admission (as out-of-state students) to the community colleges, and other people are welcome to co-sign (email temaokun at earthlink dot net).  The first letter had 51 signatures within a day and there are at least 10 that I know of for a second mailing.  I heard about this on a listserve.  Tema also had a guest editorial in the News & Observer Friday.  

 

The community college issue is exactly the kind of thing I am talking about when I say the capitalist politicians are scapegoating undocumented immigrants and trying to divide and rule.  They want to divide us over resources, like seats in the community colleges.  There were few undocumented immigrant students, they paid more than their share for that education, and educating people in the community benefits everyone, whether the students are citizens or not, not to mention that allowing undocumented immigrants to enroll is legal and access education is a human right if I'm not mistaken.  Instead of kicking out a few undocumented students, why not demand that the community colleges be better funded and that the Federal government stop causing mass immigration through its trade, military, and immigration policies?  

 

The capitalists like exploiting the cheap and less legally protected labor of authorized and unauthorized immigrants and they use xenophobia to divide workers.  Some of the capitalists are openly for immigrant labor while others use it but want the working people of the US to hate undocumented immigrants, so the immigrants and native workers can be more easily manipulated and played off against each other, and some might be genuinely against immigration, but we all depend on that labor now and probably benefit from lower prices and higher tax revenues. If immigration is a problem for native workers, as studies suggest it might be for workers with only high school education, it is business and its politicians, not the immigrants who are at fault. It is obvious which factions the politicians and media represent, very few representing the interest of the working class, after people realize who is really threatening their livelihoods.  

 

At the BORDC meeting Saturday, one of the main ideas was that the community college administration needs to hear from people who oppose the ban, and that physical letters might be more effective than emails.  I intend to write letters.  Contact information can be found at ncccs.cc.nc.us.  The next meeting will probably be at one of the libraries at 3pm on Saturday, September 20th.       

 

 

To:                 N.C. Democratic Party and

                        Campaigns of Kay Hagan and Beverly Perdue

 

From:              Concerned North Carolinians

 

            We are writing to let you know that those of us signing this letter will not be voting for nor giving money to any Democratic candidate who includes in their platform the intention to target "illegal" immigrants.

 

            The campaign ads of Beverly Perdue, Kay Hagan, and the N.C. Democratic Party have all made a point of your commitment to targeting this population. Perdue, in her zeal to join the anti-immigrant bandwagon, has been a leader in the recent decision by the N.C. Community College system to ban admission for undocumented immigrants in spite of advice that such a ban is neither legally required nor wise.

 

            In your role as state leaders, you argue that your stand against "illegal" immigration is based on your respect for the law, failing to point out you (and we) make the law. Someone deemed "illegal" today can easily become "legal" tomorrow; in fact we have made this shift many times. History has not been kind to those who proclaimed the virtue of following immoral laws – we look back on the Trail of Tears, Jim Crow, Japanese internment, to name just a few, with a sense of shame and disbelief. That these government-supported acts were based on lawful policies at the time they were implemented does not make them any less dishonorable.

 

            It is easy to be a leader who preys on the conditioned racism of communities who have been well taught to fear those who are different and, acting out of that fear, then target the most vulnerable among us. A politics of fear has no future in the global community we are becoming. We wish for a Democratic Party, any party, and leaders with the courage to help us envision a country, a world, where we are guided by the understanding that we are all human, we are all in this together.