I Pronounce Thee: Migrant and Wife

Ireland should know better...

A proposed new law requiring the clergy to refuse to perform a marriage unless couples can prove that they have a residency permit to legally stay in Ireland is causing uproar among priests.

The Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill 2008 proposes that priests establish if one or both of the nuptials has a residency permit, and if not they are obliged to refuse to celebrate their marriage.

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Feliz Día de San Patricio

You know it's Saint Patrick's Day when one of your fellow Metro travelers is wearing radioactive green pants and a shamrock vest over a black dress shirt with green tie. Good stuff.

As part of the commemoration, I thought I'd highlight this piece from the USA Today about Mexico's annual remembrance of the solidarity they received from Irish American and Irish Immigrant soldiers during the U.S./Mexico War in the mid 1800s. To this day, Los San Patricios are honored in Mexico City with bagpipes and merriment.

The deserters became known as the San Patricios and were led by John Riley, an artilleryman who had fought in the British army. They were joined by a few Swiss, French, Scottish and German recruits, most of them also Catholic.

Called los colorados, or "the redheads," by their Mexican comrades, they fought against the Americans at the key battles of Monterrey, Buena Vista and Cerro Gordo.

The Americans eventually reached the outskirts of Mexico City on Aug. 20, 1847. Mexican forces, with the remaining San Patricios handling the artillery, pounded the Americans from a monastery-turned-fort on the Churubusco River until they ran out of ammunition. Thirty-five San Patricios died in the battle, 85 were captured, and another 85 retreated with the remnants of the Mexican army.

On Sept. 13, 1847, the Americans seized Chapultepec Castle in the war's last major battle. San Patricios who had deserted before the war were branded by the Americans with the letter "D" on one cheek. The rest were hanged, including 30 who were executed at the foot of Chapultepec Hill.

"They were hanged at the moment that the American flag was raised over the castle of Chapultepec, so that they would take that sight to hell with them," Mayer said.

Mexico lost nearly half its territory as a result of the war, while the United States gained California and the Southwest. Even today, many Mexican school textbooks portray the war as an unjust land grab by the United States that led to the divergent economic paths followed by the two neighbors.

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That ought to wake things up around here :)

¡Sláinte!

mas información:

• Batallón de San Patricio
• St. Patrick's Day in Fortress America
• Irish Voices Blog: Hollywood Star Makes Impassioned Plea for Irish

"She Had It Comin"

Last week, the trolls over at the TucsonCitizen message board were feeling particularly fiesty; especially with respect to the human rights crisis that exists along la frontera. Regarding a Guatemalteca woman's body being recovered from the blistering, arid desert, one such troll spat forth:

She had it comin'. Not only for violating out soverignty but for irresponsibly endangering the life of a 10-year-old child she deserved to die. Good riddance.

Comments such as these play well to a populace that lives their lives in search of a target on the lower rungs of society. It is a fear and loathing that is nothing new for the United States.

This particular strain is nasty, though, because instead of the scary hordes of invaders being Catholic Irish, German, etc etc etc that at least had the decency to cross an ocean to get here, these modern day economic refugees are lazily trotting across 120 degree waterless wastelands. It makes them more dangerous (supposedly) because they are violating the Good Neighbor Rule.

Imagine the outrage if I were to suggest that these people had it coming too

Worse yet was the knowledge that at any moment disaster could strike in the form of fire, shipwreck or epidemic. On a wooden ship, lighted candles and open cooking fires were a constant hazard. It was not unusual for more than 100 people to die of shipboard fires in a single year. Shipwrecks, too, took their toll. In the terrible winter of 1853-54, 200 German immigrants drowned when their ship was driven onto the New Jersey shore, and 480 emigrants and their ship out of Glasgow disappeared altogether.

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or, perhaps, that these victims of human trafficking networks had/have zero sympathy from me, a law abiding citizen?

Another large but unknown number arrived in Liverpool with their tickets or their fares only and were completely unprepared for even slight setbacks. The routine delays in sailing dates were especially dangerous for these and accounted for the thousands caught in the gauntlet of official and criminal coercion from which few emerged unscathed and many totally penniless. Many were also vulnerable to the devious practices of the freelance banditti who infested the lower levels of the emigrant trade, being as unused to complicated transactions as they were to schedules or lodging houses. These easily fell afoul of money changers, offering to "dollar" their English coin into American currency of less or no value, or of lodging-house keepers who might keep a family "on the cuff" for food and shelter and strip them bare when payment came due, by force if threats failed.

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Coyotes of the past - and they say prostitution is the oldest profession...

So what can be done in this modern day age of digital databases and unmanned drones patrolling our borders to avoid the exploitation of new arrivals? Well, for starters, let's ditch any idiotic ideas to launch telephone hotlines

Since it began Friday, the hotline has received about 300 messages, which include tips about family and friends, employment, day laborers, drop houses and crank calls. Officials are analyzing the tips, Arpaio said, and officials have not acted on any of the calls.

"There's nothing unconstitutional about putting up a hotline," Arpaio said, pointing out that U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have similar hotlines.

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Sheriff Joe "My Pink Boxers are Secksy" Arpaio is correct that it's constitutional - but does it foster true justice? Racial profiling is rampant in this country, just look at prison statistics or the latest rundown of ethnicities of workers rounded up by ICE. These hardliners like to pretend that "things are different now" and not comparable to prior waves of immigration. True to form, however, they inadvertently fall into the same role as inquisitors past.

The 1882 exclusion act also placed new requirements on Chinese who had already entered the country. If they left the United States, they had to obtain certifications to re-enter. Congress, moreover, refused State and Federal courts the right to grant citizenship to Chinese resident aliens, although these courts could still deport them.

When the exclusion act expired in 1892, Congress extended it for 10 years in the form of the Geary Act. This extension, made permanent in 1902, added restrictions by requiring each Chinese resident to register and obtain a certificate of residence. Without a certificate, she or he faced deportation.

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"She had it comin'" - the sentiment echoed through the ages that have been aimed at the ears of every group of Other imaginable. It was inhumane then, and it remains so today.

Stop the hate

Crossposted at Booman Tribune

Support for Irish Undocumented Immigrants

Courtesy of the newest addition to the blogroll: Irish Voices

This Donegal window reminds neighbors of undocumented Irish family and friends in America who needs their support.

Donegal residents are celebrating St. Patrick's Day this year by planning several buses to Dublin to attend the April 14th Rally for the Family and Friends of the undocumented Irish in America.