Immigrant Rights in the Shadows of Citizenship

4. Beyond the Day without an Immigrant: Immigrant Communities Building a Sustainable Movement

94 chapter 4 Beyond the Day without an Immigrant Immigrant Communities Building a Sustainable Movement Eunice Hyunhye Cho It is without question that the immigrant rights protests of 2006 marked a milestone in U.S. history. Within the space of only a few weeks, millions of immigrants and their supporters marched in over 100 cities in almost every state in the country. The sheer magnitude of these mobilizations against H.R. 4437, or the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, set records as the largest immigrant rights demonstrations in U.S. history. In spite of the historic protests, and perhaps as an ominous hint of things to come, Congress closed its session after approving a new 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border and provided funding for 1,500 new border patrol agents; new technology, such as portable imaging machines, cameras , sensors, and automated targeting systems along the border; a $626 million increase to support detention and removal efforts; and the addition of 6,000 new detention beds.1 Beyond the Day without an Immigrant 95 Congress’ ability to pass these anti-immigrant provisions into law only months after the massive demonstrations took place suggests the critical need to support a sustainable, popular movement with a long-term vision for immigrant rights. The 2006 mobilizations demonstrated the potential power of the immigrant rights movement, as well as the vital role played by immigrants in the United States. While immigrant communities have organized to protect their rights in the past, these mobilizations signalled a shift in popular perceptions of immigration as an issue. The unique factors that brought about the demonstrations in 2006 and the lessons learned by organizers and participants thus deserve attention. In this article I examine the political context for these protests, including anti-immigrant trends and policies in recent years. I also explore debates within the immigrant rights movement around attempts to achieve reform, including legalization of undocumented immigrants, and around divergent tactics and strategies during the 2006 mobilizations. I also trace Congress’s failed attempts to pass immigration reform in 2007 and reflect on possibilities for the future. Finally, I report on the successes, challenges, and lessons on building principled, sustainable, and strategic alliances across lines of ethnicity, race, and sexual orientation and on the movement’s growing recognition and strategic vision for global justice. Immigrant Communities under Attack: The Context for Mobilization Throughout its history, U.S. immigration policy has served as a way to regulate the “character of the nation,” by limiting entry, citizenship, enfranchisement , and economic access. Immigration policy not only reflects whom the state views as a model subject or potential citizen but also serves as a vehicle to exclude those who do not fit into the ideal. In addition , immigration policies serve to control the flow of labor for the needs of capital.2 As Isabel Garcia observes, “changing administrative strategies around immigration reflects the state’s shifting interpretation of the particular role or political threat posed by immigrants.”3 These themes continue to color public dialogue: immigrants have become the scapegoat for social ills such as unemployment, crime, environ- 96 Eunice Hyunhye Cho mental devastation, failure of public institutions and services, and, most recently, terrorism.4 Since the administrative creation of the “illegal alien” in 1921,5 immigrants living in the United States, particularly those who are undocumented, have faced increasing peril. After the passage of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which eliminated the national origins quota system favoring European migration, Congress has passed measures to curtail immigration and target undocumented immigrant communities. Most notably, the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) established the regime of employer sanctions, the statutory cornerstone that continues to enable the sustained vulnerability of immigrant workers. While a compromise provision within IRCA allowed for a limited amnesty of undocumented immigrants present in the United States at the time, it also required employers to keep records of employees’ immigration status, imposing fines on those who would hire undocumented workers. Employee sanctions provisions, however, are rarely enforced against employers; the real impact of the law continues to fall on undocumented workers, who face increasing vulnerability to exploitation, decreased wage levels, immigration raids, and deportation due to this law.6 During the 1990s, policymakers increasingly drew a distinction between the rights of documented and undocumented immigrants, a pattern that continues to persist today. While Republicans, particularly social conservatives...