Please Respond to this article against the Transborder Tool and Dominguez:
http://www.noozhawk.com/conklin_wayman/article/120509_mark_cromer_an_app_for_betrayal/
I responded with the following Post:
Undocumented migrants work in, for example, meat packing plants, garment industries, migrant labor industries. THESE ARE NOT JOBS THAT AMERICANS WANT TO WORK! But, how easily we forget in times of economic downturn….
Furthermore, targeting undocumented migrants as scapegoats for the nation’s problems during times of economic downturn is nothing new—recall immigration policies during the Dust Bowl, Operation Wetback. How easily we forget our history when the profit margins are in decline…
The truth is that undocumented labor is directly recruited by corporations in the United States, yet the media never reports on this fact.
Undocumented labor is largely used in the construction industry, garment industry, and to clean up after natural disasters in the United States—would you want these jobs when you could make more collecting unemployment?
The truth is Americans do not want the jobs that undocumented people work. Recall the Postville Iowa immigration raid: homeless people from Texas wouldn’t even work in the meatpacking plants doing the jobs that undocumented workers performed daily. At a cheaper rate. In dangerous conditions. For long hours. Without breaks.
Another example: after Hurricane Katrina New Orleans experienced an influx of Latino migrants. Why? The Latinos, largely undocumented, cleaned up/are still cleaning up after the horrible natural disaster. Yet, these laborers often remain faceless, nameless.
We value labor, but not the bodies that are responsible for that labor.
You may wonder who paid for these people to clean up New Orleans? The federal government hires subcontractors through corporations such as Halliburton. These subcontractors then hire undocumented labor—an inexpensive and easily exploitable work force.
Like Professor Dominguez, I value human life over political scare tactics and nationalist rhetoric. Spreading undue fear through this type of journalism should be recognized as a form of domestic terrorism. The tool saves lives. I find it disturbing that capitalist rhetoric has so permeated Mark Cromer’s subconscious that he overlooks facts, the value of human lives, and historical president. I believe we should be thanking Dominguez for his efforts and bravery to fight for his ideals amid so much fear mongering ahistorical “journalism.”
We must first and foremost assert that the purpose of the Transborder Immigrant Tool is to save lives. Every year hundreds if not thousands of people die crossing the heavily policed border zone—many of these mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandmothers, grandfathers, daughters, sons—were directly recruited via billboards or subcontractors to work in the United States.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Kinetic Counterdiscourse: An Invitation
An invitation….
Transborder Immigrant Tool:
A Counter-discourse
What?: Please join me in posting an articulate and well informed response to various right-wing websites that are currently blasting the Transborder Immigrant Tool. (http://post.thing.net/node/1642) This virtual performance is a part of my final essay project/performance/collaborative counter-discourse.
Who?: You, your friends, little sister, mother, father, the person next to you at the café—anyone who can get involved.
When?: during final presentations for our graduate seminar at UMich, at home, whenever you have free time and access to a computer/the Internet/ do you have your iPhone/blackberry on?
Where?: The New World bOrder (or, anywhere with access to the internet)
Possible Websites; More Information? (feel free to add more):
http://va-grad.ucsd.edu/~drupal/node/1226
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