LatinaLista — “People should be outraged. Why isn’t there more outrage (in America) over what is happening in Alabama?”
It was both a rhetorical question and one that the speaker on the afternoon conference call begged bloggers and writers to answer. After all, hasn’t the nation heard how the most punitive immigration law in the country, HB 56, is doing a helluva job making Latino children, children of immigrants but who are US citizens, scared to go to school in Alabama?
Hasn’t the country heard the stories of how Latino families are so terrorized by this new law that they are selling their homes, complete with their earthly possessions, for as little as $1000 just so they can escape the state?
Don’t people know that Latino immigrant parents are now entering into child guardian arrangements with people they don’t even know that well just to keep their children out of the foster care system should they be picked up and deported?
Doesn’t the nation know that now in Alabama no business is allowed to do any transactions with undocumented immigrants and so immigrants can’t pay their water bills, light bills, get car tags, etc. And to top it off, since all transactions are null and void if done with an undocumented immigrant, it means that exploitation from landlords or other unscrupulous people — like deadbeat dads divorced/separated from undocumented women don’t have to pay child support now.
Don’t people know the desperation that exists within these families too afraid to leave their homes?
Don’t people get the fact that all the crops that have been lost due to Latino workers not able to show up to harvest them, food prices will be sky-high next year, not to mention food shortages?
What’s happening to these undocumented immigrants should outrage all Americans who believe that people who come only to work to create better lives for their families still deserve to be treated with dignity.
Because of the intentional hysteria and hate against Latinos — because all Latinos get caught up in the racial profiling that is the backbone of this travesty passing for justice — this law moves the country back in time to a place we thought was relegated to history books.
How sad that Alabama’s ugly past is rearing its head again and has found a new group of people to prey upon with discrimination, prejudice and terror.
Only this time, they feel emboldened to do it without the sheets.
