On Monday members of the Wesleyan community participated in a national day of protest against House of Representatives Bill 4437 (HR 4437), legislation that would impose strict penalties on illegal immigrants and those who assist them.
Students organized a speak-out during lunch and attended an afternoon rally in Hartford, where the janitors’ union made a strong showing.
“If this law passes, me and my family are in jail,” said Argenys Taveras ’08. “It’s that serious and it affects us right here, right now.”
HR 4437 was passed by the House of Representatives in February. It sparked controversy over harsh measures, such as criminalizing the assistance illegal immigrants, as was debated in the Senate last week. Among its other provisions, the bill makes being in the United States without proper documentation a felony and authorizes all police officers to arrest people on immigration violations. At the speak-out, which took place in front of the campus center, organizers collected letters to send to Congress and wore shirts and patches declaring, “No one is illegal.”
Speakers shared their thoughts about HR 4437 and read from an anonymously authored blog entry criticizing the bill. Many speakers emphasized that the bill was an immediately relevant piece of legislation and said that its negative effects would hit close to home.
Speakers expressed concern over the likelihood that this provision would lead to many more people being put into an already dysfunctional prison system, and that it would also lead to widespread racial profiling. They emphasized that illegal immigrants are not the threat that they are made out to be in the media.
“These people are not strangers and especially not aliens,” said Jose Marantes ’06. “There are people in this school who are illegal immigrants.”
Spanish Professor Ana-Perez-Girones spoke about her frustration with the failure of some people who use Christian rhetoric to show compassion toward immigrants.
“Where are the people with the Bible when you need them?” she said.
Devaka Gunawardena ’09 connected immigration with the structural adjustment policies of the International Monetary Fund, which he said impoverishes the residents of developing nations, forcing them to immigrate to find jobs.
Speakers also addressed connections between the bill’s proposed policies and policies at Wesleyan.
“Wesleyan is adopting similar tactics by controlling and policing the borders of the University in an attempt to further remove ourselves from the greater Middletown community,” said Isa Nakazawa ’08.
The speak-out was organized on short notice to coincide with a national day of protest against HR 4437.
“It was a collaborative effort,” said Lashawn Springer ’08. “It was a lot of e-mails going out on different listservs.”
Between 15 and 20 Wesleyan students and many of the University’s janitors attended the rally in Hartford later in the afternoon. About half of Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, the University janitors’ local, attended the rally, according to Jesus Cardeno, who is currently acting informally as union steward.
Cardeno took care of publicity for the rally, which was organized by a coalition of groups, and he acted as a marshal on Monday.
“The march is important so that we can be heard and seen on a national level,” Cardeno said through a translator.
The rally in Hartford was one of numerous national rallies on Monday. Estimates of nationwide participation in pro-immigrant demonstrations varied from hundreds of thousands, as reported by Fox News, to almost two million, as reported by independent radio show Democracy Now. According to the Hartford Courant, between 1,000 and 2,500 people attended the rally in Hartford,
“It was the first time there was a march like this in Hartford, so we were making history,” Cardeno said.
The rally in Hartford took a more pro-American tone than the Wesleyan speak-out.
At the University’s speak-out, for instance, Lisa Cunningham ’08 said, that there was nothing un-American about HR 4437.
She referred to the history of U.S. racism and imperialism, saying “Racist policy is American,” but at the Hartford rally, she noticed a different tone.
“[We] listened to white politicians give motivational speeches about how ‘we are all Americans, all equal, all lucky to be a part of this great nation,’” Cunningham said.
“Some of us at Wesleyan have a greater resentment towards the U.S. and its policies, which from my perspective was not shared by the majority within the [Hartford] protest,” Marantes said.
The Senate was unable to reach a compromise on HR 4437 or pass another proposed immigration bill before going on a two-week recess last Friday. They are expected to take up the issue of immigration again when they return to Washington.
A coalition of groups is planning another national day of action for May 1.
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