TEAM HYPOCRISY - RAH RAH RAH!

by Ruth Sheets

Alabama has passed an ultra anti-immigrant law.  This law calls on citizens to report suspected undocumented immigrants. The children of these immigrants can’t attend school since they don't have a US birth certificate.  No one is allowed to hire any of these people and police officers can pick up anyone whom they feel just might be undocumented.

This law essentially turns neighbors into informants.  It is not necessary to “know” that someone is undocumented if one simply suspects it. 

Police officers become immigration officials.  One wonders how they “know” who is undocumented.  The suspect must just look like someone who is undocumented.  In other settings, that might be called racial profiling

Supporters of this law would shy away from any comparisons to life in Hitler’s Germany or Communist Russia, but this type of turning in a targeted group is not so far removed from those earlier periods in history.

It seems easy to target people whom one considers illegal, who didn’t follow proscribed rules for entering America. However, how many of these supporters come from families whose forebears came here without papers? 

In their attempt to “balance” news coverage, both sides must be represented.  Supporters of the law appear on every show.  I find it interesting how many of these supporters have names that clearly mark them as descendents of immigrants to the US during the last century.  Their parents may have struggled, but did well enough here to give their children significant opportunities they would not have had if they’d remained in their countries of origin.

Why are these 2nd and 3rd generation Americans so unwilling to offer the same opportunities to this century’s immigrants?  Hypocrisy, of course. 

And, to be sure to get other citizens on their side, they accuse immigrants of draining welfare, coming here just to have American citizen children, essentially , stealing America’s bounty.  Why does this apply only to the immigrants of today?  Hypocrisy, of course.

Team Hypocrisy has members all over America, trying to turn Americans into spying, stingy racists, yelling “freedom” and "democracy” but unwilling to extend the blessings of either to others.

"Illegal alien” is the term most often used.  Such terms make those so labeled seem different, deserving of being uprooted and deported even if they have lived here, contributing to  the American dream for many years.

When we deport people, what are we sending them back to?  Do we really care?  Are we so comfortable with ourselves in our righteousness that it doesn’t matter as long as they are gone?

We are a country of immigrants.  Immigrants have made us a great nation and will continue to do so if we step back and see that we can do better.  Our immigrant parents and grandparents would not be pleased to see us doing to a new generation of immigrants what was done to them.

Fellow citizens, let’s take up the challenge to stand bravely against Team Hypocrisy and fight for a more humane immigrant policy.  Let us ignore the calls to act badly toward our immigrant neighbors.  Let us fight against the un-American laws so eagerly being passed and stand with our neighbors who want to live an American dream too.