Immigration reform and human rights | Federal Way letters
Published 12:08 pm Friday, October 2, 2009
First of all, I think Mr. Jackson is right — we need to really take a second look at our immigration policies and do some serious revamping of the system for a variety of reasons. Just to name a few, most “undocumented immigrants” would gladly become citizens if given the opportunity.
But the process is so far behind that individuals who filed for legal status 10 years ago are just beginning to get some answers. In the meantime, life goes on, and families are formed, and children are born, and people have to eat, and people work, and taxes are taken out of workers’ paychecks… And if paid “under the table,” these workers encounter inhumane working conditions with no just compensation for a day’s work, with job instability, and less than minimum wage.
But what I think Teniel Sabin, Hispanic liaison for the City of Federal Way, was actually trying to get at with her article on Aug. 11 was that when it comes to the part of the economy that relates to supply and demand, this ethnic group is contributing.
On the other hand, what I found disturbing from Mr. Jackson’s article was that although Sabin was speaking in general terms about this ethnic group (of which many are legal members of society and many more are citizens), Mr. Jackson seemed to spin into the usual argument and labeling that has caused many of these individuals to become victims of inhumane treatment and unjust detaining. As a reader, Mr. Jackson’s comments left me thinking: How are we as a nation teaching our kids to respond to the reality of immigration as a human right vs. the need for humane and just migratory laws? Immigration reform must come, but not at the expense of our collective conscience of a nation built from and by immigrants.
Mirya Roach, Federal Way
