Immigrant Narratives : Choose Your Mother or Your Child

by: MamitaMala

Mon Jun 22, 2009 at 09:55:09 AM EDT

Quick. Choose. The house is burning and you have to choose. Your mother or your child? Who do you save?

The current framing of the immigration reform movement and the immigrants it claims to represents takes place against a backdrop of human lives. And in our house, the United States of America, is aflame. The framing of the current immigration reform movement however, the good vs. bad immigrant narrative that we have written about and discussed extensively, forces advocates and the media into a corner. Choose. The idea is that we can't have it all when it comes to immigration reform. That we need to make compromises, find workable solutions to borrow an often heard phrase from the Reform Immigration for America Summit. That means choosing between your mother or your child.  

She didn't make it like Sonia Sotomayor. Didn't graduate from college and in fact can't even speak English. This makes her dangerous, marked and an unfit mother.

   Request for Action from the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA):

   Cirila Baltazar Cruz gave birth to her baby girl in November of 2008 at Singing River Hospital in Pascagoula, MS. She speaks very little Spanish and no English, as her native language is Chatino, an Indigenous language from Oaxaca, Mexico that is spoken by some 50,000 people.

   The hospital provided her with an "interpreter" who is from Puerto Rico and does not speak Chatino, the language of the mother. Because of the language barrier and the misunderstanding by the hospital's interpreter who only spoke Spanish and English, a social worker was called in.

   The hospital's social worker reported "evidence" of abuse and neglect based on the following:

   * The "baby was born to an illegal [sic] immigrant;"
   * The "mother had not purchased a crib, clothes, food or formula." (Most Latina mothers breast feed their babies).
   * "She does not speak English which puts baby in danger."

   Ms. Baltazar Cruz's baby was snatched from her after birth at the hospital and given to an affluent attorney couple from the posh Ocean Springs who cannot have children.

   The authorities made no effort to locate an interpreter in her native tongue. MIRA located an interpreter who is fluent in Chatino in Los Angeles CA and has interviewed the mother extensively with the interpreters help. The mother has been accused of being poor and not being able to provide for this child. No one has asked the mother to provide evidence of support. She owns a home in Mexico and a store which provides both secure shelter and financial support, not counting the nurturing of a loving family of two other siblings, a grandmother, aunts, uncles and other extended family.

   Meanwhile, there is word in the Gulf Coast community that the "parents to be," have already had a baby shower celebrating the "blessed arrival" of this STOLEN child!

   PLEASE MAKE CALLS & WRITE LETTERS DEMANDING THE SAFE RETURN OF BABY & REUNITE WITH HER MOTHER

   If you believe this is unjust and outrageous and goes against all moral and religious beliefs and values, please call or write to the presiding Judge and the MS Department of Human Services to STOP this ILLEGAL ADOPTION! Stealing US born babies from immigrant parents is a growing epidemic in the United States. Many Latino parents have lost their children this way!

   Honorable Judge Sharon Sigalas
   Youth Justice Court of Jackson County
   4903 Telephone Rd.
   Pascagoula, MS 39567
   (228)762-7370

   Children's Justice Act Program
   MS Dept. of Human Services
   750 North State Street
   Jackson, MS 39202
   Call (601)359-4499 and ask for Barbara Proctor

   For more information please call MIRA at: (601) 968-5182

   MIRA Organizing Coordinator
   Victoria Cintra at (228) 234-1697 or Organizer Socorro Leos at(228) 731-0831

Your Son: It could even be your daughter. I thought about inserting Brisenia Flores here or the 9 year old nena who was left parentless after an immigration raid in Sheriff Joe country. But even those little girls are tainted in the eyes of many. They didn't do enough to merit being fought for. Forget that they are small children. We can choose our son. Our son who assimilated so well and doesn't know/remember the country where he and his parents came from. Our son who was educated and can speak the language and won't be a burden on the system.

We the undersigned are coalescing to support our friend, Walter Lara. Walter came to the United States from Argentina when he was just 3 years old, and almost 20 years later, he is being deported for reasons we are still trying to understand. On February 17, 2009, Walter was with his boss (a DirectTV contractor) about to get on a ferry that would take him to Fisher Island so they could work on some installations. In ten minutes, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities surrounded the vehicle and bombarded Walter with questions which he innocently responded to. Couple of minutes later, Walter was arrested and sent to a detention center. As of today, he is set to be deported by July 6th to a country he has never known.

Walter has lived in the United States his whole life, completely oblivious to his undocumented status until he tried applying for college. He has never had any problems with the law. All he ever wanted to do was to go to school and have a successful career - but our country's laws prevented him to continue his education after he graduated from the Honors College at Miami-Dade College. He has even demonstrated the amazing asset he is to our community, by completing 1000 hours of community service just in his high school years. It would be a disservice to both him and to our country's values to deport him. After all, what crime did Walter commit? Why are we squandering all of his talent?

We, [as leaders or allies] to the grassroots youth movement:

1 UNDERSTAND that Walter's story is just one of numerous others, and we should not have to save each one of them case by case, because unfortunately, many end up falling through the cracks.

2- RECOGNIZE the urgency in passing a private bill that would allow this American to stay in the only home he's ever known.

3- WILL PUSH for the enactment of the DREAM Act (H.R.1751 and S.729) now!. It is the key piece of legislation and it is of utmost importance to millions of undocumented students like Walter currently living in the shadows.

4- DEMAND a meeting with the Department of Homeland Security to halt all deportations of those eligible for the DREAM Act. If we continue our ruthless raids and senseless deportations, the DREAM Act will not be able to save those who need it most.

For more info on how to get involved in this movement contact: SWERwolfson@gmail.com

The way even Barack Obama frames the narrative,  Cirila Baltazar Cruz would fail. She would perish in the fire because she doesn't speak the language. Her child loses a mother.

He said they must pay a fine and taxes, learn English and "go to the back of the line" of people trying to enter the United States from their home country.

I think my activist roots have made me unreasonable and unwilling to have to choose. We cannot let the immigration justice movement allow the most vulnerable to perish while the successful ones get saved. In my movement, no one gets left behind.