On February 1st the community of El Valle spoke out against El Trompas mandates of mass deportations in the area. We can easily say over two thousand people came out to protest El Trompas fascist policies. The protest was organized via Facebook and the turnout was tremendous; it was primarily the youth in huge numbers. The protest took place in McAllen, Texas on 10th street from the expressway to Old Business 83 where people gathered to voice their disagreement with what is happening in this country, the outright attack on a group of workers that only want a better life from what they have in their home country. Why do workers migrate? It is mainly to have a better future for their families and in many cases, to get away from repressive governments.
Migration has always existed.
As far back as when this country was founded from the East Coast, people migrated to the Midwest and eventually further to the West. Once the cotton machine was introduced to harvest the cotton people then migrated from the South to the North. The country has tremendously developed but only because of U.S. workers that migrated and migrant workers from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, El Salvador and many more countries. Migrants have come to work and contribute to the economy and we would be nowhere without them.
The attacks against immigrant workers goes back to the 1910-20’s when Mexicanos were targeted and accused of bringing in drugs, alcohol and much more. But why is this government now attacking immigrants again at such a large scale? When all was well with the economy, immigrant workers were welcomed to a certain degree but this country currently has a serious economic problem due to the development of technology. Goods are now produced by robots and other technical ways so that immigrants are no longer needed. Furthermore, corporations have now merged with the government and the answer to their problems is terrorizing immigrants. The corporations have appearingly taken over the government and their response to the workers of this country is the complete introduction of fascism. To keep us divided, they use immigrants as scapegoats which is what El Trompas began and continues to do.
This lie that immigrants create crime is just a tactic to convince the people that immigrants are only criminals. But crime has always existed because of the nature of a capitalist system where few individuals have everything and the majority have practically nothing.
Here in El Valle, I.C.E. is starting to become more visible. Recently, a local bakery was raided and undocumented workers were arrested along with the owners of the bakery for harboring undocumented workers. In another incident, a farmworker driving a tractor going from one field to another was stopped by I.C.E. and arrested. There have been other incidents and farmworkers are now afraid to go harvest the crops for fear of being harassed by I.C.E. and deported. The onion harvest will be in full swing in a few weeks and if workers do not show up to harvest, there will be losses. Both for the growers/packing sheds but most importantly, for the workers who will not be able to work. There will be hunger and illness here in El Valle De Lagrimas.
We must stand up and organize ourselves because nobody else will do it the Democrats are too rich to lead us to a better future, so the end result is “The Future Is Up to Us”.
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