Week 5: Obligation

This week one of my students vanished. A Mexican-American student. This is not an uncommon event at my school. Family emergencies happen and students are whisked away to Mexico, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, etc… to visit an ailing relative or whatever. However, this time was different for a couple of reasons.

1. There was no notice. Usually the student and the family let the school know what’s going on. We heard nothing and were unable to get a hold of him for 6 days.

2. There were rumors. Some students said he was deported or that a family member of his was. Others said that the family went back to Mexico in fear of deportation.

You hear on the news that immigrants both documented and undocumented are scared but this week at school we witnessed this fear first hand. Rumors ran rampant. Students, teachers and staff tried to figure out the truth. After 6 days we finally got a text from the student. He said, everything is fine and that he will be back to school next week. No other details. We still don’t know what happened. We don’t even know if he was even in Mexico. I guess we’ll find out next week. Hopefully.    

This whole experience got me thinking about obligation. What obligation do we have to this student and his family? This student is Mexican, yes, but he is also very American. I don’t know the specifics of his family’s story but I would guess he was either born here or came over at a very young age. He does very well in school. He is college bound for sure. He is a star on our soccer team, too. Lastly, and most importantly in my book, he is a good kid. He’s funny, kind and good spirited.

Why should he live in fear? Why should people like him live in fear? The answer for some people is easy. “His family broke the law by bringing him here and therefore we have no obligation to them.” “They are illegal aliens.” “When they came here they knew they were at risk for deportation.” “We are just enforcing our laws.” I understand this argument. It makes sense from a legal standpoint. My grandparents were “legal” immigrants as far as I know. However, I would like to discuss why I think Americans have an obligation to “these” people.

As a country we* make mistakes. Let’s talk about one of our biggest. Slavery. For three hundred years we imported people. About 11 million people to be exact. We made laws to make this legal and for a long time it was. When it became illegal we had ourselves a situation. What do we do with all these former slaves? We need them to do work, to maintain our way of life, so we can’t send them away but now they want rights and we don’t want to give them rights. Sound familiar? A couple hundred years later and we are still digging out of the legacy of slavery.

What we did was illegal by our standards now. We should have never imported 11 million Africans into our country. But we did. Although views on this have changed over time, most Americans now agree that because we did import the slaves we have an obligation to those Africans and that they deserve all the rights and privileges of an American citizen.

We brought the slaves here to work. We needed them to maintain and/or further our way of life. Why have we allowed the number of people living in our country illegally to rise to nearly 11 million in the past 40 years? SAME REASON! We need them to maintain and/or further our way of life.

  

Why else would we allow this? We are good at incarcerating people. In fact, we are the best at it. If we wanted to stop people from coming to our country illegally, we could have. But we didn’t. We allowed these 11 million people to enter our country illegally because we benefited from it. They worked in the kitchens, fields, constructions sites, homes, factories, etc… If you have lived a middle class life in America in the past 40 years you have done so on the backs of “these” people. They made your omelettes. They picked your tomatoes. They painted your basement. They watched your kids. They assembled your car. Do we not have an obligation to “these” people?

        

11 million. It’s weird that the numbers are identical. We enslaved Africans and forced them to work in our kitchens, fields, constructions sites, homes, factories, etc… but we can’t do that anymore. So, we’ve modernize. Now, we just let people come on their own without all the benefits of citizenship so that they can work in our kitchens, fields, constructions sites, homes, factories, etc… This way they are the bad guys. Clever.

The flaw, however, is the same flaw that dismantled slavery: Relationships. Slaves became part of the American fabric. It took time but soon enough many Americans started to feel an obligation to the slaves. Our feelings of obligation grew so strong that Americans fought and died to free the slaves.

I feel that same obligation to the hard working individuals that have lived in our country undocumented. They came here for a better life and they have worked hard, mostly for my benefit, to provide a better life for their children. If I was in their shoes I would hope that I would have the courage to do the same.

We still don’t know why our student vanished this week and I am hopeful that he will return next week. However, this scare made this situation real for me. Are we going to let our neighbors vanish? For years, we let them cook our omelettes, pick our tomatoes, paint our basements and watch our kids. They have become a part of the American fabric. Shame on us if we feel no obligation to them.    

* I use inclusive language here because this is my country I am talking about. My ancestors weren't in this country at this time as many other peoples’ weren't either but to me it matters not because this is my country now and I am willing to accept its sins as my own.