In the 2004 comedy, A Day Without a Mexican, the state of California awakens to find an eerie fog and one-third of its population missing. Suddenly there are no nannies, garbage sits in the streets, dishes go uncleared and unwashed in restaurants, agriculture and construction are at a standstill.
Who knew this satiric comedy would be so prophetic? In the past few days I have had a strong desire to send this film to Governor Jan Brewer, a governor who was not elected by her own state but instead slipped into power after Janet Napolitano became Obama’s Secretary of Homeland Security. On their website, filmmakers Sergio Arau and Yareli Arizmendi state that their film was in response to Proposition 187. “We believe that immigration reform is the civil rights struggle of our time. It is a struggle that affects all of us with its impact on the economic, social and cultural fabric of our society.” I wonder if they could have anticipated the hatred and backlash against immigrants that would be embodied by SB1070.
Tales abound in print, on radio, online, and television media of Latinos/as afraid to be out on the streets. There have been reports of people afraid to leave their homes to go for groceries or to take the kids to school for fear they’d be pulled over or stopped because they are Latino/a, whether they are citizens or not. Businesses in Latino/a neighborhoods are struggling. While SB1070 is exclusive to Arizona on paper, it is indicative of a broader xenophobia that is engulfing the United States.
A May Pew Research survey indicates that the majority of the US public supports Arizona’s law, including those provisions that were blocked by Judge Susan Bolton’s injunction. This, in spite of the fact that in another Pew survey, most Americans believe that Hispanics are the most discriminated against group in the contemporary United States. A recent CNN poll confirms Pew’s findings, yet unsurprisingly 71% of Hispanics oppose Arizona’s law. You don’t need a Ph.D. to realize that those individuals who will not be terrorized by this law seem to have no problem with it.
Faith-based groups were active last week in publicly protesting Arizona’s law. Religious leaders evoke compassion, the dignity of the human, the imago Dei in all of us, and solidarity with the oppressed as theological categories to negotiate this debate from a faith-based perspective. Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference: “Today, Arizona stands as the state with the most xenophobic and nativist laws in the country.” With similar outrage Jim Wallis, President and CEO of Sojourners proclaims:
It is not just about Arizona, but about all of us, and about what kind of country we want to be… This law will make it illegal to love your neighbor in Arizona, and will force us to disobey Jesus and his gospel. We will not comply.
While not advocating illegal immigration, the need to find a more compassionate avenue for addressing the undocumented immigrants in our midst—one that does not tear apart families and keep individuals living in fear—must be embraced. We have a broken immigration system in the United States, yet we must find a solution to this issue that does not vilify Latinos/as, justify racial profiling, and create more broken communities and families.
