Immigration battle hits the streets
By Kate Johnson
jokathry@mscd.edu

Photo by Matthew Jonas • jonasm@mscd.edu

More than 70,000 immigration reform demonstrators filled the streets around the state capitol and Civic Center Park in Denver May 1. Many held signs and chanted “Sí, Se Puede” (Yes, we can) as they marched from Viking Park to Civic Center.

      Thousands of protesters converged on the streets of Denver Monday for a three-mile walk to the Capitol building where an estimated 75,000 people rallied in support of immigration rights.

      The day of awareness, aimed at illustrating the necessity of immigrants to the work force, was part of a national effort that drew over 1.1 million, according to the Associated Press.

      The following day, students and faculty across the Auraria Campus voiced their opinions on what many say is the hot-button issue of the year.
      “You don’t get rights because you’re illegal.

      That’s the bottom line,” student Joseph Smith said.

      Smith said he advocates immigrant-reform policies. While he said he believes some immigrants should be given amnesty, he said border patrol needs to be tightened.

      Ultimately, Smith said he feels a diplomatic solution is necessary in order to put this controversy to rest.
      “You could use diplomacy with Mexico to keep people inside their own country. They shouldn’t come over here illegally,” Smith said.
      While immigrant-rights supporter and Metro political science professor Zia Meranto does not see eye to eye with Smith, she does believe a diplomatic solution is in order.

      Citing the North American Free Trade Agreement as a major component to the current situation, Meranto said if people didn’t want immigrants to come to this country illegally,

      Americans should have voiced their concerns over a law she feels forced them here in the first place.

      The premise of NAFTA, signed into effect by Bill Clinton in 1993, was to remove tariffs between the U.S., Mexico and Canada in the hopes of increasing trade between the regions and stimulating their economies.

      Meranto, who teaches a Latin American Politics course, said NAFTA has had ill effectson the economy and people of Mexico. She said she feels many transnational corporationsbenefit from outsourcing factories there. Laborers, she said, are routinely forced off their farms and into these factories where they receive poor treatment and low wages. In addition, she said, a lack of environmental restrictions has allowed corporations to pollute the land and rivers of Mexico.

      This is why, Meranto contends, many are forced to come to the U.S. in search of livable wages.
“I think it’s important to understand that if we’re going to open the borders for the market—if we’re going to have a free market—
we must allow for the free movement of labor,” Meranto said.

      She also said she feels Americans need to understand their own past.

      “I always tell my students it’s very important to keep it all in the context of history. This pointing fingers at people and calling them illegals—I would have to say from a Native American perspective that the first illegals were white,” Meranto said.

      Regardless of who were the original people of this land, some argue the current immigration debate should be geared toward the people who inhabit America today.
      Student Chelsey Biggers sees the workforce as being in a state of jeopardy.