Comrade:Charhapiti/sandbox/Essays/Ilegal immigration

"I don't support illegal immigration" or "Illegal immigration always involves "human traffickers"

Where I live, "illegal" refers to the humans who crossed the border. As to what you refer to, where where I live, people arrive without a coyote (smuggler) but it happens but it costs about as much as a car. And people are afraid of cartels. I think most 'illegal' inmigrantes that I know simply drive across the border. And I think the ones using coyotes are usually Latin Americans, not from other countries. The main reason someone would use a coyote to cross is to evade getting detained. Once you can afford a coyote though, you might as well pay the visa fees. The currency difference between the U$ and MX is vast, so it is often out of reach, and most of the time, coyotes are drug traffickers. There are many ways to arrive here without resorting to coyotes. So what is the primary contradiction here? The imperialists.

We are sometimes referred to as "border hoppers". I was born here because someone walked across the desert on foot, and that has been a big part of my identity from since I was little. I would look at the vast area between where I come from originally and the nearby border where I lived, knowing my destiny was to cross back and complete the circle. Often, when I walked or ran distances I would think about this. Was I strong enough to be like my family? This remains a part of my consciousness.

Not everyone is looking back. Others are making the most of their life here on this side, forgetting where they came from, and that is part of the diaspora experience too. Until something wakes inside and you realize something is missing (the culture you left behind in search of a better life)...

As to the question of "illegal" immigration, remember that Turtle Island is under settler colonial occupation. We often say here "no one is illegal on stolen land", " no borders on stolen land". Fuck ICE, they are representatives of the settler colonial occupation.

I know that I am native to Turtle Island, and that other migrant peoples are not, but I don't feel they are unwelcame. If you told me that an individual is profiting off a corporation that is destroying indigenous lives, I would feel differently about that individual, but not with the nationality to which they belong. If you tell me that the individual is using the U$ privilege to become a landlord in his own country, I would feel differently, but not about the nationality to which they belong. And that's because that individual is aligning themselves with the U$ bourgeoisie.

People who have a historical connection to these lands, whether of indigenous culture or latino-ized, have more right to it whether they come by "illegal" means or not is not the issue. And all people who come here migrating for whatever reason (as long as they are not white europeans, who act very entitled in the similar way of Israelis) it is always because of the imperialism of which the U.S. is the largest instigator. So it is no problem if someone comes from Afganistan, India, or Gambia, they came here for a reason (often because imperialism's ruining their economy or direct threats to their life) and we must welcome them. They made a choice to risk their life coming, and be faced with indefinite detention. There are people who get locked up here (usually immediately upon crossing) who have been locked up in ICE detention centers for years. Once imperialism ends, many people will also want to go back. But I prefer having these visitors over having settler colonizers who are currently the main ones who decide citizenship. Indigenous USians barely got citizenship decades ago.

So what I mean, everyone crosses the border. At the end of it, everyone is viewed as illegal no matter how they came here, if they have brown skin or speak with a non european accent. A European can come here, be homeless, be drunk, be a drug addict, be an asshole, be racist, and still get the king's treatment. They can have no papers, they can get detained, and still be viewed as legal. At worst, they get viewed as mischevious, resilient adventurers.

An indigenous person can walk across the border on their ancestral lands that they have a connection to for milennia and, because of settler colonialism, be viewed as illegal.

A Latino who is affected by imperialism in the present day, especially the ones who have more obvious lineage in the indigenous communities, whether because it shows on their face or because they have a proven geneology, has more right to be anywhere in the Americas than anyone - save for the local indigenous people themselves, who belong to that place. It is not a matter of legal or illegal at that point, for the people here, all the borders were drawn by settler colonizers who created the divisions and the caste systems.

The U$ is also involved in the displacement of indigenous peoples worldwide. If they come here, they are welcome. The only people I don't recommend is the gusanos of the world, the complicit in imperialism, but privilege is naturally scarce under imperialism so that's a minority.

No one is illegal on Turtle Island, save for the gusanos and settler colonizers.