A New Look, The Undocumented & More

WASHINGTON, D. C. – Chisme of the week – as most first ladies have brought a first to the White House, our current First Lady Michelle Obama is no exception – not only does she hoe vegetables in a little corner of the White House grounds, but she’s also made headlines when she became the first to add a full time makeup artist to her traveling entourage.

Although she’s been working with the First Lady for some time, the makeup artist in question, Ingrid Grimes-Miles, may have gotten the fulltime gig after giving her a softer look by the simple task of plucking the arch out of her eyebrows, adding false eyelashes and an iridescent pearl facial highlighter to give her a softer look thus masking that harsh look she demonstrated on the campaign trail.  And, here I thought those frowns and leering looks were brought about because of her displeasure of Oprah Winfrey getting thisclose to then presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Having been born with natural eyebrow arches, now I know why some folks look at me as if I’m giving them the evil eye. Even though I did once try to pluck out the arch, all I achieved was exposing a bald spot that looked like a dimple above my brow. Since I can’t afford to fly in a makeup artist from Chicago, I guess I’ll just have to live with an arch that keeps giving everyone the wrong impression.

Living in the White House certainly has its perks, especially if you’ve got the moola to spend on flying in make-up artists, jetting in pizzas from any place in the country while the rest of us make do with ordering ours from local eateries and maybe splurging on wax job once in a while.

Even if the cost for their perks may come out of their own pocket, (they made $2 million last year) one might wonder if perhaps they should be setting a better example instead of displaying extravagances that demonstrate they have nothing in common with the “average” Joe. Their extravagant behavior certainly could give the impression that perhaps, like most millionaires, they don’t really have a real understanding of what most Americans are suffering during these tough economic times, as they would like us to believe.

CLAREMONT –  Helene Slessarev-Jamir is the Mildred M. Hutchinson Professor of Urban Ministries at Claremont School of Theology and a Sojourners board member. She is the author of the following immigration piece that was posted on the Internet, Feb. 6, 2009:

As I sat in the federal court room in Tucson witnessing the sentencing of over 60 people who had been caught crossing the border between the U.S. and Mexico without proper documents, I thought about the Matthew 25:31 text in which Jesus speaks of the judgment of the nations based on their care of “one of the least of these.” Before us were almost 60 men and four women, all but one were young, with dark complexions that resembled those of the indigenous people I had encountered in southern Mexico the summer before.  These beautiful, handsome people were being treated as disposable people – neither the Mexican nor the US government wanted them. Here they stood with chains around their wrists and ankles after having risked their very lives in a desperate attempt to cross the border in search of a livelihood.

 I had brought seven of my seminary students to the border just south of Tucson for a weeklong experiential class on immigration.  I live in the Los Angeles region of one of the epicenters of new immigration to the US – attend a predominantly immigrant church, have been writing on immigration related issues for some years, and had been active in the 2006 campaign for comprehensive immigration reform. But none of that quite prepared me for what we witnessed at the border. It was here that I truly confronted the atrocities of our current enforcement system that has transformed the border with our neighbor Mexico into a militarized zone.

 Beginning in 1994, one year after President Clinton signed NAFTA, the US Border Patrol implemented what is known as Operation Gatekeeper, which sought to fortify border crossings in the more urbanized regions of the U.S. -Mexico border, thereby forcing migrants to cross in the desert where the border patrol asserted it could more easily apprehend them.  The result has been to force migrants into ever more remote regions of the desert, resulting in over 1,200 deaths in the Arizona desert alone.

We went out into that desert with Humane Borders, one of several humanitarian organizations actively seeking to save migrant lives by placing water stations in the desert. These volunteers and others seek to live out Isaiah 49:10:

 They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.

 While in the desert we visited a small makeshift shrine erected at the spot where a woman had died. The barrel was dilapidated, perforated with bullet holes, yet inside were a set of praying hands with some artificial flowers and broken rosary beads scattered on the desert floor around it. We stopped, held hands, and prayed together not knowing how many others were facing death somewhere in that same desert at that very moment.

 Just walking short distances in the desert gave a sense of its vastness, where a person could easily become disoriented and lost unless one followed some distinct markers.  Many of the migrants coming from southern Mexico believe that it is a short walk from the border to Phoenix, not realizing that it is actually 178 miles.

 A conversation with a Latino pastor whose church overlooks the border on the US side gave us an intimate look at the migrants’ point of view. He told us that many Mexicans want to cross for only short periods of time and then go home, while people from Central America have often paid three times as much to reach the border and therefore want to stay in the US longer. He described how a group of women, wet and hurting, came to his church. They had been hiding in a tunnel under the border for three days after their coyote abandoned them. Saying, “There is a difference between moral law and legal law,” he gave them food and clothes even though it is illegal to assist someone crossing without documents. He knows of many immigrants who dream of going home, but they have sold everything to raise the money to come to the US and so have nothing left to go home to.

 We also crossed into Mexico twice to visit with both American and Mexican people of faith who are aiding migrants after they have been deported. No More Deaths, an all-volunteer organization, has documented daily human rights abuses by the border patrol and ICE by conducting interviews with hundreds of deportees arriving at their aid stations. We learned that despite millions of dollars having been pumped into the Border Patrol during the Bush administration, there has been absolutely no oversight of their conduct either by the Department of Homeland Security or Congress.

 We finally found a sign of joy after reaching a small lunchroom run by a group of Catholic nuns just a short walk from the border at Mariposa. Although still shaken by their days in custody, the people who greeted us there seemed more relaxed and relieved to once again be safely within Mexico. Here they could regroup and decide their next steps.

 While we walked across the border, there were lines of trailer trucks lined up waiting to cross into Mexico.  We must realize that traffic runs in both directions – today the US is importing guns into Mexico that have fueled the violent drug wars that are now raging through that country. We also heard stories of coyotes who traffic both humans and drugs, forcing migrants to carry drugs into the US on their backs; if caught, the courier will face years in US prison.

 By weeks end our hearts wept at all we had heard and seen.  I can no longer support so-called legislative compromises that will countenance the continued militarization of the US border with its neighbors. Those of us in the immigrant rights community must insist on the creation of lawful avenues of entry that will allow people who wish to work in the US to do so legally, without them being tied to one particular employer as is generally the case with guest worker programs. We must demand that the US uphold international human rights standards in its treatment of migrants. Si se puede!

 BOSTON – On the subject of immigration, President Obama is currently faced with an immigration issue that involves his paternal aunt, Zeitouni Onyango, an illegal immigrant living in a public housing project in Boston.  Obama has declared that he was unaware that she had been living in the U.S. illegally and that while the matter should be resolved within the boundaries of the law, he has not and would not intervene on her behalf.

However, her illegal status did not keep her from attending the inaugural festivities as an invited guest. Nor did it keep her from making a donation to her nephew’s campaign.  Her small donation was undoubtedly a good faith gesture as a proud relative wanting to lend her support, and it is doubtful that she was aware that campaign contributions are prohibited from foreigners.

Unfortunately, Obama’s aunt not only ignored an immigration judge’s 2004 deportation order, but also caused more criticism when it was disclosed that she lives in public housing, which her attorneys state she applied for when she was a legal resident in 2002.

To date, Onyango’s first and subsequent appeal for asylum has only resulted in case continuations. Her latest hearing, held April 1 in U. S. Immigration Court, was brief and sweet as Judge Leonard I. Shapiro continued her case once more -- this time until Feb. 4, 2010.

 Her story is not unlike millions of other illegal immigrants who arrive in the United States looking for a safer, better life, and don’t want to return to their former lives. But few have the privilege of being related to the President of the United States, and fewer, if any, have the security of being accompanied by federal law enforcement officers to assist in whisking them in and out of hearings to avoid interference from anyone.

While the President has declared his position on the matter, can we really believe that anyone making a decision as to his aunt’s future won’t take his position into account?

Only time will tell whether favoritism will play a part in the court’s decision regarding Onyango’s future and how it may affect the fate of other illegal immigrants in the same situation, not to mention the reaction of immigration activists. It’ll be interesting to see how this drama finally plays out.

NEXT POST:  Coming soon – stay tuned.

Comments

[Dyan]

Great work.