Immigration is a basic right

By Alvaro Huerta

Tribune News Service

Throughout history, human beings have been in constant movement. If migration is certain and constant, why do so many Americans and their leaders make a big fuss about the migration of Latinos to the United States?

I will never forget the stories that my father told me about his experiences working as a bracero as part of a U.S.-Mexico guest worker program during the mid-20th century under which millions of Mexicans toiled in this country’s farms. I remember him telling me about being sprayed with chemicals and forced to live in overcrowded housing. He was charged for food and rent from the company store. When U.S. politicians insult immigrants, they also insult the memory of the hardworking migrants who produce our food, including my father.

Later, my mother worked as a domestic worker in the United States, cleaning the homes of Americans and raising their children. She treated these children like her own.

My older sisters also worked as domestic workers in the United States, starting as young as 13 years old.

We all benefit from immigrant workers, such as my family.

In her work, Professor Bridget Anderson of Oxford University contends that we should strive for a world without borders. While some call her views utopian, she counters that borders are a dystopia.

Closed borders

Professor Michael Dear of the University of California, Berkeley argues a similar point in his recent book, “Why Walls Won’t Work: Repairing the U.S.-Mexico Divide,” about the failure of closed borders. He predicts that all border walls between countries will eventually come down.

Numerous Americans leave home for better jobs, education or simply for love. Aspiring immigrants should have the right to fulfill their dreams and aspirations.

Freedom to migrate is a basic human right.

Alvaro Huerta is an assistant professor of urban and regional planning and ethnic and women’s studies at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues; it is affiliated with The Progressive magazine. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.