Calling certain immigrants Illegal Aliens in this nation founded by uninvited, yet initially welcomed Europeans would be ironic if it were not a perennial dehumanization of one immigrant group by another.
The story of America is replete with all manner of invasion, conquest, plunder, enslavement of one people by another, theft of property and of children, and ultimately — formal strategic warfare and genocide of those deemed by official government policy as undesirable, expendable, and to be eliminated by any means necessary.
It is time to understand that we are all Earth citizens, deserving of humane treatment, one and all.
The perennial controversy of who is native in this land we call America, which people are immigrants, who is native-born, who is legal, who is illegal, and who is alien is a long simmering cauldron of charges and counter-charges, name-calling, roundups and deportations, wars, denial of public benefits, inhumane exploitation, and even genocide.
This is our U.S. history, not necessarily taught in public schools, nor to most college students, and certainly not presented in the popular culture of brave pilgrims carving settlements out of a mostly unpopulated wilderness, and later in western films creating myths of even braver cowboys on horseback and settlers in wagon trains.
Yet unless all know our nation’s true history, many will naively continue to ask, as I have heard for fifty years: Why are there so many immigrants in America? Why can’t Indians stay on their reservations? Why don’t Blacks go back to Africa? And why do so many Mexicans come illegally to our country?
There is a willful general public ignorance that our nation was founded upon pre-existing nations of native peoples, robbed of their land by European immigrants, sometimes enslaved, eventually forced off their lands, and millions killed by war and disease.
There is 
also the grotesque contradiction, initial to our nation’s founding, that in spite of all men being created equal, many immigrants soon bought, kidnapped, and enslaved Africans, forcing them with whip in hand to build the roads and cities, raise the crops, even to build our nation’s capital. The compromise written into our Constitution that declared enslaved humans as only 3/5ths of a white person poisoned our nation in such a manner that so-called moral, god-fearing men and women greedily profited from owning, breeding, and selling human beings, tearing families apart, raping women, and then selling their children for further profit.
The slavery in this nation of free men (and women — without equal rights) led to a Civil War, but not before another war — a war of conquest of Mexico fomented by slave owners determined to ensure additional slave states west of the Mississippi River. Our nation won that war — taking half of Mexico as war booty, and would have taken all of Mexico, but for Congressional concern of what to do with all the unwanted Mexicans!
Manifest Destiny — a manic delusion that God himself willed that the U.S. reach “from sea to shining sea” contributed to this war and further land grabs that transmogrified our nation to a replication of the empires of European monarchies. Thus, we grabbed Hawaii, Cuba, and the Philippines for a while, and to this day, Puerto Rico, and we now have more than 737 military bases throughout the world. American is an empire — as was Rome, Britain, and many other empires, now fallen by bankruptcy, overstretch and hubris.
As historian Howard Zinn explains, “If our starting point for evaluating the world around us is the firm belief that this nation is somehow endowed by Providence, with unique qualities that make it morally superior to every other nation on Earth, then we are not likely to question a president when he says we are sending our troops here or there, or bombing this or that, in order to spread our values — democracy, liberty, and let's not forget free enterprise — to some God-forsaken (literally), place in the world.”
We must realize that calling anyone an illegal alien indicates a willful ignorance of our nation’s complex history. It is time to understand that we are all Earth citizens, deserving of humane treatment, one and all.
What do you think?
Comments
It is clear
Manifest destiny was definitely a vision that upheld the white supremacy forces of control that exist today. The need to and willingness of so many people that feed into what they are told instead of first formalizing what is really being said, makes this article on immigration sad, yet not at all surprising. Regardless of who comes in first or last, it will be those people whose truth we hold as validate, or don't hold as valid and still sit back and allow to happen, that will continue to send this country and all of its citizens in an unnecessary world-wind.
comment:
In my opinion, the term “Alien” is already reproducing inequality. Calling someone an Alien whether they are illegal or not shows labeling, which people in a society often adapt, internalize and use from time to time. Being an immigrant from another country, I first found it weird how people in the immigration office addressed me as a permanent “alien”. I also find it weird how forms stating legal status have to be worded as legal “alien”. Being called an alien made me feel alienated from the rest of the people because it felt like I did not belong, or I was less of a person. Now, tying this back to the article, I feel that people should not be labeled in such a way because it somehow creates this notion that people who are called as such are inferior. Looking back at the history of the United States, one should note that the original inhabitants of this land are the Native Americans. Due to colonization, the europeans who now became the emigrants took over this land and displaced the Native Americans from their own homes. In addition, the european emigrants, specifically the White-anglo Saxon Protestants (WASP) tried to acculturate and assimilate the indigenous, leading to their alienation not only from their land but as well from their own bodies. Laws such as the Dawes Act resulted to Native Americans to become slave farmer of their supposed to be “owned land”. Their children have been removed from the influence of their parents to be sent to boarding schools where they had to change the way they dress, cut their hair, and prevented them from speaking their own native language so just they can adapt to the WASP ideals. What the european emigrants did was a total gender and cultural attack, and robbed the original inhabitants of their land of what was most precious to them. Having said this, I think, that if there is someone who have the rights to name people “Aliens”, it should be them, because they are the real Americans.
Who are the Aliens again?
This article is entirely moving and it totally touched my heart because the fact that is stated in the article is absolutely amazing. “Who are the aliens in this nation of immigrants?” I love the title by itself. United States is truly made out of immigrants and each immigrant as briefly introduced in the article is brought from different areas of the world such as African-Americans from Africa during the time, Mexicans were thrown off of their own land, etc… these people now that have lived in this land for years and years are called immigrants and as the article states that usually these people are questioned, why are ___ not moving out of here? However, many of us entirely overlook the history. I am still debating if we are just completely ignorant or acting dumb about the whole immigration and racism issues. One of the points that I liked in this article is the fact that U.S sent out military troops to take over places such as Hawaii, and Cuba. I like that concept of sending troops and taking over the countries since nowadays whoever is in power tries to overrun the one who is in need of help. I entirely like the last part of the article that states, “then we are not likely to question a president when he says we are sending our troops here or there, or bombing this or that, in order to spread our values---democracy, liberty…” in today’s society and centuries back, this is a method that is being used by almost all the wealthy and powerful countries, whenever a country is in power, they try to go in other countries whether it is because they (such as U.S) want to spread democracy or Russia to go in other countries to spread communism, it is always a power with different “names” to go other countries, try to abuse their power and take control of a country. Most people that are supposed to be titled the same as others are the ones who are considered as Aliens and treated differently when it reality everyone is the same and should be treated the same.
Aliens?
I found this article to be very interesting; however, I do see some issues within it. Yes the author points out that almost everyone in the country is a descendant of an immigrant; the United States has stretched it's hand onto almost every possible option. People came by the boatloads in the early 1900s for a better future than what their country could provide and most of them got it. Now the problem I found with this article is that is makes the United States seem like the enemy for wanting to rid themselves of illegal immigrants. The United States government is simply trying to protect those who ARE citizens. I admit, the cries of "they took our jobs" are idiotic, because the people that say that do not want to work for $4 an hour picking strawberries; however, can you really blame the United States for wanting to clear out some space?
I don’t think it is fair to
I don’t think it is fair to call anyone in this country an illegal alien or immigrant. Our country’s history has been founded on our so called illegal immigration. When most people think of America born citizen they think of only people who live here and born here, but the country was actually lived in by Native Americans who were here before any Europeans. I think our country should be less likely to kick people out and be more open to letting them in. Yes, it is true that our country can only hold so many bodies or people, however I feel that if any immigrant is willing to work and take jobs that no other American is willing to take then we should allow them to stay. I’m not saying we should allow everyone to come in because as I said before there is a carrying capacity, but we should at least give the majority a chance. Right?
"Aliens"
I find the title of this article to be very fitting as it is true that America was formed by "aliens" itself. We (Europeans and others) traveled over to middle North America and settled into what we now call the United States of America. It wasn't our land before it was discovered. If it were to even have a true owner then it would be the Native Americans that settled here way before us, however even they didn't "claim" land, they shared it. As more and more Europeans and people of other parts of the world immigrated to America, they began to set up America, which proves that immigrants are the backbone of The United States. Without immigrants, America most likely wouldn’t have prospered to the degree it has. Therefore to deny immigrants the ability to achieve the American dream seems un- American, as many of are ancestors made it easy for us. To call them aliens is politically incorrect. If we call America’s current day immigrants aliens, we may as well be calling ourselves aliens, as we were all foreign to this land at one point. Besides, most of the blame is put on immigrants from south of the border while no one complains about the illegal Canadian citizens that exist. I guess were quick to judge because we view people coming from south as third world invaders. Many of these south of the border immigrants take jobs that most Americans couldn’t survive and therefore help our country prosper.
The State of Our Immigration System
What makes our country unique is that we are a nation of immigrants. The history of race relations in our country has never been cordial or pleasant, which puts immigration reform today a growing matter. States enforcing laws giving police officers to pretty much check anybody just because they suspect he or she is an illegal immigrant is an incorrect method to go about with immigration reform. It basically gives people of authority permission to engage in racial profiling activities. Lots of other issues come with this immigration concern in our country such as violence, drugs, and supply of jobs. We must tackle all of these issues, which include tightening our border security and speeding up the process of legal immigration, along with the immigrants already living in the country. What makes our country so unique compared to the rest of the world is our identity as a place where anything is possible, a land of education and prosperity. This is the reason why there’s so many people wanting to migrate to America. At the same time, we must consider the security of our people living here legally and improve our immigration system.
Who is the immigrant?
This is a very hard question to answer for this country. I like the first sentence where the man says that the Europeans were first welcomed but not invited. Later in their history, many other immigrant groups were also first welcomed as well as invited the leader the story changed. America is the great experiment in what happens when people from all over the world come together and try to live with one another. Although after coming here, I can still see that many of the groups are still separated even though they live close by. So even though there is integration there is still separation so inevitably there is still racism, but I believe this is true for everywhere, unfortunately.
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