Linking Floods and Undocumented Immigration
Earlier this morning I was listening to WBUR at the gym and heard a short sound bite from Governor Romney about local response to all the recent flooding. Because I was occupied on the treadmill I was unable to write down or otherwise record his quote verbatim, but the gist of it was that the response was so great because people opened up their "homes, beds, and tables for their neighbors who were displaced."
While I wasn't personally effected by the flooding and don't actually know anyone first hand who was, from what I gather the Governor didn't lie and local communities did respond to the best of their abilities.
What the Governor's statement made me think about, however, is what the situation would've been if the flooding had occurred in a Massachusetts covered by HR 4437, the Sensenbrenner bill passed late last year by the U.S. House of Representatives.
Among the many punitive provisions of the legislation, passed with the support of President Bush (and I wonder what Presidential-aspirant Romney thinks about it), any U.S. citizen who "aids or transports" an undocumented person would be guilty of a federal crime. This broadens the definition of smuggling from someone who actually takes a person across the border illegally, to any person that knowingly provides support to undocumented people. This is not just limited to employers, but social service agencies and neighbors. Even driving an undocumented person to the grocery store or picking an undocumented child up at school would be a crime.
Now, think about some of the communities hit by flooding, in particular those along the Merrimack River like Lowell or Lawrence with huge immigrant populations. While I donÂt know any hard numbers, presumably there are significant undocumented populations in these towns. If the Sensenbrenner bill were law, any Massachusetts citizen who allowed an undocumented neighbor to stay in their home, sleep in their beds, or eat at their tables would be liable for prosecution. Such inhumane, immoral legislation would result in the displacement or even death of thousands of human beings in times of natural disasters.
Is this the kind of local support (or lack-there-of) human beings deserve during disasters...or ever?
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