Forgotten Fruits

Supporters of illegal immigration attempt to justify their demands by identifying with the great civil rights movements in American history. From “We Shall Overcome,” to “Grapes of Wrath,” Illegal immigrants and their supporters exploit the memory of these movements while ignoring some of their most fundamental beliefs and struggles.

Dolores Huerta is one such supporter with selective memory. Huerta is a long-time union organizer who co-founded the United Farm Workers union with legendary labor leader Cesar Chavez. She recently spoke out against “Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-San Diego, for his tough stance on immigration enforcement.” [1] The fundraising event was held to raise money for the Pajaro Valley Cesar Chavez Democratic Club.

Thursday, Huerta focused her attention on immigration reform, urging the crowd to keep up the pressure on Congress. She praised the Watsonville City Council for establishing the city as a haven for the undocumented earlier this year and the AFL-CIO for taking on the Department of Homeland Security’s plan to crack down on businesses that hire undocumented workers. The labor organization is part of a coalition that filed a lawsuit to block the plan Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco. [2]

Dolores Huerta is conveniently forgetting an event that took place 35 years earlier.

In 1973, the UFW organized a march through the Coachella and Imperial valleys in Central California to the United States-Mexico border to protest growers’ use of illegal immigrants as strikebreakers. The thousands of marchers were joined by the Reverend Ralph Abernathy and U.S. Senator Walter Mondale.[3]

Huerta and other proponents of illegal immigration ignore the fundamental fact that Cesar Chavez was against the very thing they are using his name to support. That’s right, folks. Cesar Chavez was against illegal immigration. He fought to raise wages for farm workers, and knew that illegal labor would undercut honest workers and forces wages down.

Other supporters of illegal immigration like to compare their struggle to that of the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. They sing “We Shall Overcome,” as they march with Jessie Jackson and other African-American icons. However these people are ignoring an important difference between the plights of African-Americans and illegal immigrants. Black immigrants were originally forced to come to America and live their lives in bondage. Illegal immigrants are not. They come here more than willingly, and then demand the freedoms of an American citizen.

Some blacks bristle at the comparison between the civil rights movement and the immigrant demonstrations, pointing out that black protesters in the 1960’s were American citizens and had endured centuries of enslavement, rapes, lynchings and discrimination before they started marching.

Others worry about the plight of low-skilled black workers, who sometimes compete with immigrants for entry-level jobs.

And some fear the unfinished business of the civil rights movement will fall to the wayside as America turns its attention to a newly energized Hispanic minority with growing political and economic clout. [4]

Even Jessie Jackson is not above exploiting the name of the legendary Martin Luther King Jr.

Mr. Jackson, who addressed the immigrant rally on Monday in New York, echoed those views. He noted that Dr. King, at the end of his life, focused on improving economic conditions for all Americans, regardless of race. And he said the similarities between African-Americans and illegal immigrants were too powerful to ignore. [5]

There may be similarities, but Jackson himself said that Dr. King fought for “Americans, regardless of race.” Illegal immigrants and their supporters seem to forget that basic concept-they are not Americans. And Jackson is forgetting one of the early concerns of the NAACP:

W.E.B. DuBois, a founder of the N.A.A.C.P., and other prominent black leaders worried that immigrants would displace blacks in the workplace. [6]

And that concern appears to be justified:

…nearly twice as many blacks as whites said that they or a family member had lost a job, or not gotten a job, because an employer hired an immigrant worker. Blacks were also more likely than whites to feel that immigrants take jobs away from American citizens. [7]

It is easy for illegal immigrants and their supporters to ignore history in a society that places such little value on its struggles and lessons. Iconic figures and movements are exploited with little regard for their true beliefs and values. Children and adults alike are force-fed falsified myths by those they trust who have talked the talk and walked the walk.

Sadly, the hardships and harvests of Martin Luther King’s civil rights movement and Cesar Chavez’s farm workers movement have become forgotten fruits.