September 8
GUEST: Hillary Walsh, award winning immigrant defense lawyer and adjunct law professor, talks about her career defending human rights in the Supreme Court of Nevada and the US Supreme Court.
Hillary Walsh has some very good arguments for expanding immigration. This country needs young workers, especially if they are willing to do the jobs that most US citizens don't really want. There are so many areas of the US that are severally underpopulated. An immigrant community in these areas would be a win for everyone. In addition, many immigrants have skills that are in need, and would add to the strength of our economy. To Hillary, letting immigrants into the country makes all the sense in the world.
Other arguments for a more open immigrant policy get less attention. The fact that the US is probably responsible for much of the immigration from Central America wasn't part of our discussion. Global warming is probably the biggest reason that small farmers can't grow enough food to feed themselves or their families. In parts of Guatemala and Honduras it doesn't rain anymore. And the empire to the north has been built in part on the burning of fossil fuels.
The US "War on Terror" has turned large parts of Central America into killing zones. The US has trained some of the worst assassins in the School of the Americas, now the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The US has also overthrown many elected leaders in the area, turning functioning democracies into military dictatorships. Look at the destabilization efforts aimed at Nicaragua over the last several years.
Then there is the conversion of these countries into mono-crop farming, all aimed at export markets. Also, foreign based mining operations have poisoned water resources. Economic colonialism has made life very hard south of our boarder. Don't we have some responsibility to these starving people making their way north?
But maybe that is not the best argument to make. US citizens have grown up with the prevailing narrative that depicts the US as a moral country, alway promoting democracy in the rest of the world. Are they ready for a closer look at US imperialism, and the terrible costs of empire? Perhaps it's safer pointing out the advantages of bringing more immigrants into our country. But beneath all that, we must work to expose the military empire that has brought so much suffering to our brothers and sisters in Latin America.
