Dear HCN,
I am so tired
of seeing these uncomplicated, sentimental appeals that place
themselves on the side of pro- or anti-immigration and grace your
pages with alarming regularity. I am appalled by the embedded
hypocrisy that decries immigrants (read: brown-skinned) encroaching
on “our” public space and representing a danger to “our wildlife”
when “we” in the United States pass law after law that allow U.S.
corporations to move their polluting industries to other countries
(particularly Mexico) and back a World Trade Organization that
ensures these countries cannot regulate the environmental and
social degradation spewed by these corporations.
Please
don’t allow any more historically vacuous pieces on
immigration to cross the desk. Most of what is today considered
“the West” was taken by the United States from Mexico, including a
king’s ransom in natural resources (reference the
Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo). The
racist and imperialist bent of the United States government and
many of its citizens took this land and this wealth from Mexico,
ensuring that Mexico would never become a global power.
As
for the question of overpopulation, this cannot even begin to be
addressed without taking into account the unequal impact on natural
resources by individuals. Given that your average red-blooded
“American” youngster will use in several years of his or her life
resources equivalent to those which are consumed by entire villages
of people over decades, I don’t think most Americans are in
much of a position to cast stones.
Too many Americans want
all of the benefits of a global economy and a global culture
without any of the ensuing responsibilities. The history of the
Mexican-American border is long, complicated and filled with
contradiction and injustice. Editorial pieces and letters that
ignore this history and writers who imagine that an impermeable
line can and should demarcate the borders of the United States need
to educate themselves a great deal. An excellent place to begin is
“It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own”: A New History of
the American West by Richard White.
Felecia Caton
Garcia
Albuquerque, New Mexico
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Cut the anti-immigration rhetoric.
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