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There was always something transparently cynical about Obama’s lofty
promise to “go after employers” instead of undocumented workers
themselves, as if making it impossible for immigrants to find decent
jobs were something other than persecution. But why, in the search for
someone of whom to make an example, would the Obama administration
decide on American Apparel? If you’re trying to convince us
that you’re “protecting immigrants from exploitation,” wouldn’t it be
more intelligent to go after a place that doesn’t specifically market
itself as a socially conscious “anti-sweatshop”?
A place that doesn’t provide healthcare benefits and pay well over
minimum wage? Or offer free English classes? Why not, I don't know,
find a factory that doesn't provide its workers with free bikes and
on-site bike mechanics? There are plenty of sketchy, example-ready
slaughterhouses here in the Midwest, and you can bet they don’t provide
their undocumented workers with in-factory massages....(Read more in DoubleX.)
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I wonder what it means that most every review I’ve read of Amreeka, a film that premiered at Sundance and opens in L.A. and New York tonight, makes use of the word “gentle” ... (Read more in DoubleX.)
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There’s a moment in Which Way Home,
a documentary airing tonight on HBO, in which someone tells a group of
Central American men that 20 percent of them will die on their way into
Arizona. “Who wants to go to the United States?” he shouts after
imparting this factoid. Every man cheers. It seems that no traveler
considers himself part of that unlucky minority ... (Read more in DoubleX.)
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Last night I listened to a member of the U.S. Coast Guard narrate the
experience of intercepting a boat full of Haitians trying to reach
American soil. The worst part, he said, was that the immigrants thought
they’d found “the welcome wagon.” The Coast Guard was enthusiastically
invited onto the boat before they burned it and repatriated its
passengers ... (Read more at DoubleX.com.)
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Summer tourists complaining of passport troubles can gain some perspective by reading a recent article in the Wall Street Journal on the legal challenges currently facing thousands of Texans. Because they were issued by midwives, these people's birth certificates have recently been rejected as proof of U.S. citizenship.
In the 1990s, a number of Texan midwives were convicted of selling up to 15,000 fraudulent birth certificates dating back as far as the 1960s. The State Department now doubts the validity of any birth certificate issued by a midwife in Texas, and lack of a recognized birth certificate makes it practically impossible to provide the proof of citizenship that is required of passport applicants. The more stringent legal requirements also make life harder for midwives still in practice and could harm the women and children that they treat. The Journal mentions the potential for racial discrimination in this case (low-income Hispanics make up the primary client base for midwives along the border) but fails to mention the health risk posed by threatening the continuation of border midwifery.
The presence of an experienced attendant at childbirth is the single most effective way to reduce maternal death, but unaffordable medical bills, lack of health insurance, and fears of deportation can deter soon-to-be moms from seeking professional care. Among rural and immigrant communities, midwives (some of whom have assisted thousands of births) have kept maternal, neonatal, and infant mortality down by providing an accessible care alternative. For many undocumented pregnant women, the choice in delivery method is not between midwifery and hospital aid but between midwifery and unattended birth.
A loss of midwives' perceived legitimacy could jeopardize the practice by providing more ammunition to midwifery's detractors. Despite debates about the safety of at-home vs. hospital births, few would argue that unattended births are safer than midwife-assisted deliveries, one of the reasons why such deliveries are still prevalent in southern Texas (in 2004, midwives delivered 6.6 percent of all Texas children). Fueling the "turf war" over prenatal care furthers efforts to criminalize midwifery and could pose a bigger threat than frustrations at the border if it places midwives' livelihood, and the lives of their future clients, at risk.
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