Immigration: The New Willie Horton?

by Barbara Lopez, 2007-08-24

On August 20th, the day after Elvira Arellano was deported, immigration activists and supporters held a vigil in front of San Francisco's Federal Building. Elvira, a mother of a U.S. citizen child who sought refuge in a church, garnered national attention. She became a symbol of the immigration movement when she revealed her status as undocumented. On that Sunday, when ICE detained her in front of her child as she was leaving church, it sent shock waves through the immigrant community.

The Spanish press was out in full form, but the English-speaking press was not in sight. Nowhere is the polarization of the immigration debate more painfully evident than in the press coverage. While Spanish-speaking press has whole sections devoted to immigration and depicts the real human cost to “appease the public” immigration policies, English-Language press is still very much on a witch hunt.

The headlines dominating the San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Sun-Times, and even the New York Times focus on seeking out criminal aliens and the problems of getting these felons deported. These articles feed into the right-wing agenda of making immigration an issue about crime. By calling all illegal entry a crime and then focusing on the handful of serious felons as representatives of a much larger community, the right is successfully recreating the Willie Horton strategy of presenting to middle America the scariest of imagery-that of evil doing foreigner.

The recent focus in the English-language press has been on a triple murder in Newark, New Jersey with the involvement of an undocumented immigrant and alleged rapist/murderer Jose Lachira Carranza. Willie Horton, anyone? This was Newark’s 60th crime, yet Republican candidates are fueling the anti-immigrant propaganda by pointing out the failures in deporting Mr. Carranza and of course, attacking Newark for their Sanctuary City policy. As Rep. Tom Tancredo “eloquently” pointed out “they are dead kids and one in the hospital because Newark is a sanctuary city.” New Jersey state officials are now seeking that police officers evaluate the immigration status not of convicted criminals but of ALL suspects.

The biggest issue is that without a healthy debate about immigration, one that isn’t based in a fear and loathing of darker skinned peoples from the third world, the immigration debate will continue to be just as polarizing. This will be an issue in face-offs between federal and local governments, but will also greatly color the 2008 elections. Immigration is a wedge issue and progressives must get their messaging together. It is disconcerting that the average newspaper reader isn’t getting the full picture and that fringe voices such as the incredibly xenophobic minutemen or “shock-jock” Michael Savage are given equal legitimacy to city officials and respected lawyers in the community.

This is where San Francisco has a chance to be visionary. As Newark gets challenged for its Sanctuary policy, so will San Francisco. Are we ready for it? Gavin Newsom shined in his role as a marriage equality advocate and though he has been supportive of amnesty, is largely silent in the immigration debate. While another young Democratic mayor, Corey Booker, is facing the heat of the debate, progressives and Democrats need to form an alliance around immigration and we need our Mayor to vocalize his pro-immigrant stance.

Our silence is just prolonging the confrontation to come. In September, the City is hosting a forum on immigration. Will this be the space for that discussion? Calls to the Immigrant Rights Commission were not returned.