Mama Illegal
March 26, 2006 by elenamary
My mom doesn’t get political too often but dear lord when she does stand back.
Today we went to a rally at the state house against HR 4437. This piece of legislation would make a felon out of anyone assisting an undocumented person. That is if you provided food or housing to an abused woman who happened to be undocumented than you would be committing a felony.
My mama’s sign says “Human Beings Are Not Illegal”.
This is my stance with the term “illegals”, people cannot/should not be illegal, their acts may be illegal but they themselves are not “illegal”.
Category Latinos, Ohio | Tags: , Latinos in Ohio, Latinos in the Midwest
i find “illegal alien,” as a term, extremely offensive and problematic.
there are illegal ACTIONS, but people themselves are not “illegal.” how can a human being be illegal?
furthermore, we never call any other people who break laws “illegals.” for example, when someone drives above the posted speed limit, they are breaking the law. but we do not call them “illegal drivers.”
why is that? i think that it’s just a racist way to dehumanize immigrants.
Mamá is a beautiful woman
Jennifer,
Dehumanization is the name of the game.
Elena,
Nice photo.
That was the name of a paper I wrote in high school that I recently came across: “no human being is illegal.” I was there with you in spirit elena, i hope that everyone who could possibly be out, was out over this weekend, and will make a public and vocal stand against HB 4437. The Senate will take it up for debate this week.
right on.
my mom was really tired from work, but i still think she’s as political and her actions as valuable as those who marched.
on the term “illegal,” maybe we shouldn’t be so reluctant to accept this term. yes, not human being is ever ever “illegal” or “alien.” but i’m thinking of how it can also be appropriated, much like the term queer. illegal cuz outside of State law. like Ricardo Flores Magon once said, “el revolucionario es por excelencia un ilegal.”
i thought of this cuz of the picture of your mom holding the sign. it wont be abou idea to have a shirt that says “illegal”
La esperanza de una reforma en inmigracion
El 10 de Marzo empezó algo que no se podia soportar mas, el despertar de la comunidad hispana en los EE.UU. Por tradición la gente procedente de los paises de lengua hispanohablante son solidarios y buscan con ahÃÂnco el bienestar de sus familias.