Salon.com > Borders

In defense of open borders

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Eric Hobsbawm called the 19^th century “a gigantic machine for uprooting countrymen.” He believed that the reason for mass migrations of people was straightforward. For the immigrants of the 1800s, the United States “was not a society but a means of making money,” often in the hope of “returning home, rich and respected, to their native villages.”

Those immigrants began their American lives by and large doing low-wage, back-breaking, monotonous manual labor and domestic work, which was still better than what was available from in their homelands. In the old country, they’d starved; in the new one, they’d strive. The United States was to forge a national identity out of the collective national identities of millions of foreigners.

In the age of globalization, however, the nation state has retreated as the locus of world power. Multinational free trade agreements, supranational financial institutions, and transnational corporations ensure that capital can float between nations with all the ease of a monarch butterfly. Labor, on the other hand, remains under the jurisdiction of border-obsessed states.

Report: Border guards made wrongful arrests for rewards

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 19:52:00 +0000

According to a new report flagged Friday by HuffPo, border patrol agents at bus and train stations in western New York have routinely arrested people who were in the country legally. The report claims that agents were motivated by the lure of bonus pay and extra vacation time into making more arrests.

Via HuffPo:

Over five years, Border guards patrolling Rochester's bus and train stations arrested about 300 people who weren't suspected of any other crime, but weren't carrying complete citizenship or immigration papers, according to a report released this week by the immigrant rights group Families for Freedom and the New York University School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic.

... The researchers fear the incentive of extra pay and time off from work possibly contributed to overzealous stops and wrongful arrests. "A law enforcement agency that focuses on arrests allows the agents to operate in a way that harasses people in the community," said [report co-author, NYU School of Law Professor Nancy] Morawetz. "These law enforcement officers have enormous power over people's liberty."

Obama: Congress must act on immigration right away

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 20:36:00 +0000

President Obama said that if Congress fails to act on immigration reform, he will send up his own version of a bill and "insist that they vote on it right away."

Speaking in Las Vegas, Obama said that it is "very encouraging" that a bipartisan group of senators put forward a framework for immigration reform, and that it shows a "desire to get this done." But, he added, "action must follow. We can't allow immigration reform to get bogged down in an endless debate."

He continued that his main proposals have, in the past, been backed by both John F. Kennedy and George W. Bush, showing that "the foundation for bipartisan action is already in place." But, if Congress doesn't act, "I will send up a bill based on my proposal, and insist that they vote on it right away," Obama said.

The president outlined three major components of his legislation, including a focus on enforcement and border security, dealing with the 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the country, and modernizing the legal immigration system.

"For comprehensive immigration reform to work, it must be clear from the outset that there is a pathway to citizenship," Obama said, saying that the pathway will include passing a background check, paying taxes, paying a penalty, learning English, and then "going to the back of the line behind all the folks that are here legally."

Senators will roll out bipartisan framework for immigration reform

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:54:00 +0000

A bipartisan group of eight influential senators will roll out a broad framework for immigration reform on Monday, which will include a pathway to citizenship for the illegal immigrants already in the country, contingent on border security measures.

From the proposal, there are four basic pillars of the plan:

Create a tough but fair path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants currently living in the United States that is contingent upon securing our borders and tracking whether legal immigrants have left the country when required;
Reform our legal immigration system to better recognize the importance of characteristics that will help build the American economy and strengthen American families;
Create an effective employment verification system that will prevent identity theft and end the hiring of future unauthorized workers; and
Establish an improved process for admitting future workers to serve our nation's workforce needs, while simultaneously protecting all workers.

We fell in love at Borders

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The training supervisor at Borders – a feminist poet with red hair who spoke in slacker tone – gave a tour of the store, pointing out what books were shelved where. I knew the store well. Since finishing college and moving back in with my parents, I visited daily. I wrote poems and short stories in the cafe, and envisioned where my own novel, if I ever wrote one, would one day be shelved.

“This,” said the training supervisor turning a corner in the store, “is where the computer books are.” She pointed at a girl who wore all black and stood on a wooden ladder, a large paperback in one hand. “And this is Melanie, who also just started.”

Melanie and I completed our entire week-long training session together. We were trained on everything from learning the register, to efficiently sorting books when they came off the truck, to properly inputting special orders on an outdated computer with an outdated program. The special orders day I remember fondly. I was sick and sneezed often into my shirtsleeve. Somehow, at the time, I thought she didn’t notice and I was playing it cool. In retrospect, I was a mess.