"Mayor de Blasio contrasts Vargasā contributions to America against the immigrants who supposedly āpose a threat to our security.ā Though mentioned almost as an aside, this is an important assumption to stop and consider. Are immigrants really posing a threat to Americaās security? Is that how we want to think about this situation? Or should we acknowledge, as even conservative punditĀ Glenn BeckĀ has done, thatĀ U.S. military interventions and neoliberal, imperialist policies abroadĀ have fundamentally destabilized andĀ endangeredĀ the lives of many of these people? Who is the real threat to security: working-class people risking death to make it across the border, or a military superpower and its wealth-owning class pushing capitalist havoc onĀ most of the world?"
"ItāsĀ beenĀ past time for us to acknowledge the myth and fallacy of āAmericaā as a great, aspirational project to which good immigrants should ācontribute.ā The contradictions of this society are simply too huge, too fundamental, to ignore or excuse. Americaās systematic forms of oppression and unfreedom are not limited to the horrors of genocide and chattel slavery (through which our wealth was indisputably built), but also include the insidious slow bleeding of working-class peopleĀ the world overĀ through the everyday drudgery of exploited labor. America does not exist in benevolent isolation ā a shining, self-contained oasis for desperate refugees ā but operates and spreads its sour influence everywhere, from deadly sweatshops in Bangladesh to disappearing rainforests in Brazil; from Mexico City to Manila to Mumbai. If anything, America should grantĀ allĀ immigrants immediate papers: not out of pity, but as penance and apology."