| New World Border Responds
To Anti-Immigrant Sentiment
By Daniel Domaguin
Latino/a Heritage Month screened the 2001 documentary New World Border
on Saturday, October 8 in Hallock Auditorium. The film detailed the
increase in human rights abuses along the United States-Mexico border,
beginning with the United States’ entrance into the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. That same year, President Bill
Clinton signed Operation Gatekeeper, a border control operation implemented
in California designed to prevent crossings of Mexican migrants into
the United States.
The documentary began with a young boy on the United States side of
the border, saying of the wall behind him, “I think it should
be knocked down with a crane.” The wall was put up as a result
of Operation Gatekeeper, which erected gates and lights, increased the
number of Border Patrol agents, and tightened security, forcing migrants
to find other areas for crossing. Slogans such as “Good fences
make good friends” circulated among supporters of the operation.
On November 8th of the same year, California’s Proposition 187
passed, restricting undocumented immigrants healthcare and education
for their children. Focus was drawn to effects caused by the influx
of migrants across the border. The United States’ joining of NAFTA
brought economic hardship to Mexican farmers, who were dependant on
agriculture for their livelihood. Surplus crops from the United States
were sold to Mexico for cheaper than domestic crops, causing farmers
to lose business. Mexico experienced economic crisis, and the United
States government responded to the problems south of the border by executing
a number of “border control programs”: Operation Gatekeeper
in California, Operation Hold-the-Line in Texas, and Operation Safeguard
in Arizona.
American media of the time cast Mexican migrants as parasites, even
though the wealthy were getting wealthier with the underpaid labor.
Migrants were also purported for causing the increase in illegal drug
trafficking from Mexico to the United States. Although 80% of drugs
come though the border through legitimate ports of entry, drug enforcement
rhetoric frames migrant workers as the main smugglers of illegal drugs.
Operation Gatekeeper, and its sibling operations in Texas and Arizona,
was designed to force migrants into harsher conditions to cross. In
San Diego, California, the operation sent migrants into rugged terrain
towards the east county, where many migrants died from heat, cold, snow,
increased exhaustion and desolation. At the time of the documentary’s
filming, the University of Houston reported that 3,000-5,000 people
had died from attempted border crossing.
Politically, Operation Gatekeeper was a success, because it gave the
façade of a controlled border. The Border Patrol became the largest
federal police force, with 8,000 agents in service during the documentary’s
making. However, the film points out the hardships caused by the border
control operations, and the distinctive racism that surfaced as the
border became a more politicized space. The immigrants rights movement
grew as human rights abuses and prejudice continued in the border region.
La Resistencia was among the groups that organized in response to Operation
Gatekeeper.
Even with opposition to Operation Gatekeeper, growing up in a border
region as a Mexican American with the negative rhetoric can cause periods
of self-hatred. Annette Portillo, the Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in
Comparative American Studies, talked after New World Border about her
personal experiences as a Chicana growing up in south San Diego. The
film brought up anger and frustration, and Portillo discussed how the
anti-migrant sentiment existed prior to Operation Gatekeeper and still
has not ended. In 1990, an operation entitled the Light Up the Border
Campaign attracted many anti-migrant Americans. Vehicles were lined
up at the border at night with their headlights on, serving as both
extra searchlights and a deterrent for migrants. Portillo also discussed
the Minute Men, a volunteer group who have patrolled the border in Arizona
since mid-2005.
The issue was brought closer to Oberlin with Jeff Stewart, a local activist
with the Immigrant Worker Project. Stewart discussed how the border
has traveled to Ohio, and the expedited removal of migrants in the area
is expected of federal agents. The Border Patrol is being placed in
locations from Michigan to Buffalo, New York. Anti-migrant sentiment
is spreading beyond the United States-Mexico border region, and with
it is attached misinformation. It is assumed that migrants bring down
the economy, and that federal moneys are lost to supporting non-taxpaying
migrants, although the Department of Labor reported in 1990 that 79%
if undocumented immigrants paid taxes, and the statistic has risen since
then. Of these taxpaying migrants, only 8% used social services. There
is also a concern that migrant workers take away all the jobs from American
citizens, and there are no jobs yet, while the Department of Labor expects
that 10 million entry-level jobs will be unoccupied by 2010.
Operation Gatekeeper’s fences and lights still line San Diego’s
and the United States’ southern border, and with anti-migrant
sentiment on the rise, New World Border gave some insight into the growing
misinterpreted issue.
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