Table Of ContentNO ONE IS ILLEGAL
NO ONE IS ILLEGAL
Fighting Violence and State Repression
on the U.S.–Mexico Border
Justin Akers Chacón
Mike Davis
Photographs by Julián Cardona
Chicago, Illinois
© 2006 by Justin Akers Chacón and Mike Davis
Photographs © 2006 Julián Cardona
Published by Haymarket Books
PO Box 180165
Chicago, IL 60618
773-583-7884
www.haymarketbooks.org
This book was published with the generous support of the Wallace Global Fund.
Cover image of a freeway sign near the U.S.-Mexicoborder in San Diego,
California. Photo © Joe Klein/Zuma Press.
Cover design by Amy Balkin.
Printed in Canada
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Akers Chacón, Justin.
No one is illegal : fighting racism and state violence on the U.S.-Mexicoborder /
by Justin Akers Chacón and Mike Davis ; photographs by Julián Cardona.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-931859-35-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-931859-35-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Immigrants--Civil rights--United States. 2. United States--Emigration and
immigration--Government policy. 3. Alien labor, Mexican--United States--Social
conditions. 4. Mexican-American Border Region--Emigration and immigration.
I. Davis, Mike, 1946- II. Title.
JV6456.A38 2006
304.8'73072--dc22
2006018288
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface 7
Part I: “What Is a Vigilante Man?” White Violence in Calfornia History
Mike Davis
Introduction 11
1. Pinkertons, Klansmen, and Vigilantes 15
2. White Savages 21
3. Yellow Peril 27
4. “Swat a Jap” 33
5. The Anti-Filipino Riots 39
6. The IWW versus the KKK 43
7. In Dubious Battle 53
8. Thank the Vigilantes 59
9. The Zoot Suit Wars 71
10. Beating the UFW 77
11. The Last Vigilantes 83
Part II: Mexico: Caught in the Web of U.S. Empire
Justin Akers Chacón
Introduction 89
12. Conquest Sets the Stage 99
13. Neoliberalism Consumes the “Mexican Miracle” 109
14. From the Maquiladoras to NAFTA: Profiting from Borders 115
Part III: Mexican Workers: the “Other” American Working Class
15. Mexican Workers to the Rescue 125
16. Segregated Workers: Class Struggle in the Fields 131
17. The Bracero Program: A Twentieth-Century Caste System 139
18. Poverty in the Fields: Legacy of the Bracero Program 149
19. Immigrant Workers Continue to Build America 155
Part IV: The War on Immigrants
20. Immigration Policy as a Means to Control Labor 173
21. The Race and Class Construction
of Immigration Restrictions 181
22. Constructing the “Illegal” Mexican Worker:
Racism and Mexican Labor 191
23. Immigration Double Standards 197
24. Militarizing the Border: Death Warrant for Migrant Workers 201
25. Inventing an Invisible Enemy:
September 11 and the War on Immigrants 215
26. The Bipartisan Segregationists of Labor 227
27. The Right Wing Calls the Shots 237
28. Terrorists on the Border: The Minutemen Stalk Their Prey 249
Part V: ¡Queremos un Mundo Sin Fronteras!
29. Human Rights Activists Confront the Far Right 261
30. Unions and Immigrant Workers 267
31. Making Borders History 277
32. A New Civil Rights Movement 287
Notes 295
Index 327
Preface
“Y
ou’ve kicked a sleeping giant.” Perhaps no other sign from
the million-strong march for immigrant rights that shook
Los Angeleson March 25conveys a more precise summa-
tion of events unfolding across the country. Or as an activist speaking at
a border rally commented, “they weren’t sleeping, they were working!”
At the time of this writing, a new civil rights movement for immigrants,
involving literally millions of people in cities throughout the United
States, is now entering its third month.
With a sudden gale force, the debate over immigration politics,
historically the domain of big business and the Far Right, has been
blown wide open, its contents scattering into the daily discussions of
ordinary people. Largely self-organized and self-mobilized, the new
movement has drawn out the most affected communities, who are far
ahead of the existing organizations that have historically claimed lead-
ership in the immigrant communities.
This new movement, led by immigrant workers and Latino stu-
dents, but pushing the whole working classforward, is now beating on
the walls of Congress and demanding equality. Homemade signs at
protests from San Diegoto the Brooklyn Bridge, reading, “We are not
criminals” and “Amnistía sí”(Amnestyyes), reveal the depths of indig-
nation, the willingness to come out of the shadows, and the desire to be
seen and heard. In true mass character, all generations are being hit by
the ripple effect of such a large-scale movement. A sixth-grader
protesting with one hundred thousand others on April 9 in San Diego
expressed the mood succinctly: “At school the rich teach us about their
8 NO ONE IS ILLEGAL
democracy. Here, we show them ours.”1In a matter of weeks, the move-
ment has shifted from a defensive to an offensive posture, and promises
to redefine the landscape of American history, with immigrant workers
narrating the story.
The groundswell was brought to the surface in reaction to passage
in the House of the draconian HR 4437(also known as the Sensenbren-
nerBill), that, if passed by the Senate, would make felons of immigrants
as well as those who help them. This movement has forced the propo-
nents of the bill, who had been able to set the tone for the debate over
so-called immigration reform, onto the defensive. It has redrawn the
parameters of the debate, which had previously been restricted to crimi-
nalization on one side, and partial legalization combined with a guest-
workerprogram on the other. The movement has cast a spotlight on the
struggle of ordinary workers and their families to be treated equally, and
with dignity as human beings.
Like the great struggles of working people in years past, this move-
ment will face many challenges, twists, turns, defeats, and victories. It
contains the seeds that make another world possible: one based on
working people gaining control over their daily lives, and giving new
definition to the term democracy.
This book will attempt to lay out the historical and contemporary
dimensions of the immigrant rights struggle, focusing primarily on the
U.S.-Mexico border and the experience of the working people that
cross the border (or have been crossed by it). In the section by Mike
Davis, the origins and evolution of the anti-immigrant movement are
examined, shedding light on its political, racial, and class origins. I then
provide a broader look at the formation of immigration policy in the
context of the struggle between capitaland labor.
Giving a voice to the experience of immigrant workers is greatly
aided by the fact that they themselves are making history as of this
writing. It is my hope that this book can serve as a resource and help
give confidence to the generation of activists taking initiative in the
streets, campuses, and workplaces of the new America. I also hope it
provokes a wider discussion and debate about what kind of world we
want and need as working people, un pueblo mundial sin fronteras.
Justin Akers Chacón
San Diego, California
May 15, 2006
Part I
“What Is a Vigilante Man?”
White Violence in
California History
Mike Davis
Victoria Cintra (in the car), Gulf Coast Coordinator for the
Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance (MIRA), advises un-
documented workers in Hangar 216 of the Naval Construc-
tion Battalion Center in Gulfport, Mississippi. Some of the
270 workers, including 30 women, contracted by a private
company accused its owner of imposing subhuman work-
ing conditions at the New Orleans Naval Base. They lived in
tents with no water or electricity, food was scarce, they
were overworked and underpaid. They were evacuated to
Gulfport when Hurricane Rita struck. September 2005.
