As the first Latino to head the Justice Department and the grandson of Mexican immigrants to boot, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is well situated to help formulate a policy on illegal immigration that is tough but also honest about Americans' addiction to cheap labor.
Now Gonzales has a chance to tackle the issue, thanks to a challenge from a Mexican-American member of Congress.
Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., recently sent the attorney general a letter asking Gonzales to send federal agents – FBI, U.S. Marshals, whatever – to the Arizona-Mexico border to monitor the Minuteman Project. The term refers to the 1,000 or so volunteers from around the country who, starting April Fools' Day, plan to help Border Patrol agents locate illegal immigrants.
The way Grijalva sees it, the escapade is a recipe for volatility that demands action by the Department of Justice.
"The presence of these groups unfettered by any monitoring creates a situation for something violent to occur," Grijalva said.
The Border Patrol agrees. It told the Minutemen to stay home and leave the border monitoring to the professionals. Agents have enough to do without having to keep an eye on a thousand U.S. citizens to make sure they don't get out of control and hurt someone.
But the Minutemen are defiant and plan to go anyway.
That's what I don't get about these yahoos. Eager to play cop, they talk a good game about the importance of law and order. But, when law enforcement officers tell them to back off, they wipe their feet on the directive and press on.
No wonder President Bush said recently the Minutemen are nothing more than "vigilantes."
One of the volunteers even invited me to join the fun. He read a column in which I had applauded efforts in Congress to deploy 2,000 new Border Patrol agents. From that, he assumed that I must be a fan of the Minuteman Project. Why not meet them in Arizona, he said. As a Mexican-American columnist who has been known to praise immigrants, my presence could give the Minutemen a shot in the arm.
I'll pass. I have too much respect for real law enforcement officers to lend support to a band of imitators. Besides, the reader misread my position. I said I supported adding new Border Patrol agents – with badges, uniforms, guns, months of training, etc. – and not amateur border guards taking the law into their own hands.
The misunderstanding illustrates a big problem with the immigration debate. There's no nuance. The extremes – on both the right and the left – aren't happy unless you're with them all the way, 100 percent of the time.
The same column that got me the invitation to join the Minutemen also got me in hot water with some Mexican-American students at San Diego State University. I met up with them after a luncheon honoring the late farm labor leader, César Chávez. The former president of the United Farm Workers Union would have celebrated his 78th birthday on March 31.
Here's the ironic part: Despite the fact that Chávez is these days revered among Mexican-American activists, the labor leader in his day was no more tolerant of illegal immigration than the Arizona Minutemen are now. Worried that the hiring of illegal immigrants drove down wages, Chávez – according to numerous historical accounts – instructed union members to call the Immigration and Naturalization Service to report the presence of illegal immigrants in the fields and demand that the agency deport them. UFW officials were even known to picket INS offices to demand a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
And in 1973, in one of the most disgraceful chapters in UFW history, the union set up a "wet line" to prevent Mexican immigrants from entering the United States. Under the guidance of Chávez 's cousin, Manuel, UFW members tried at first to convince the immigrants not to cross. When that didn't work, they physically attacked the immigrants and left some bloody in the process. It happened in the same place that the Minutemen are now planning to gather: the Arizona-Mexico border.
At the time, The Village Voice said that the UFW conducted a "campaign of random terror against anyone hapless enough to fall into its net." In their book, "The Fight in the Fields," Susan Ferris and Ricardo Sandoval recall the border incident and write that the issue of how to deal with the undocumented was "particularly vexing" for Chávez.
No doubt it was. And now it vexes an entire country.
Navarrette can be reached via e-mail at ruben.navarrette@uniontrib.com.
