[Music]
um my name is j i repres I'm
from as you can
tell um I uh just a brief background
about myself um I received my degree at
UCSD in Spanish Literature and a minor
in international migration studies I'm
currently doing my Ms in Spanish
Literature and I go to if you all know
Muhammad F which I'm sure you do I
regularly attend his Masjid so that's
just a little bit about myself um but so
tonight's Topic in introduction to the
US Mexico immigration debate it's
history and reality uh first off I would
like everybody who was born in the
United States to raise their
hand okay of the people who have their
hand raised keep it up of the people who
have their hand raised how many of your
parents were born in in the United
States okay how many of your
grandparents were born in the United
States okay that's that's good enough
but point the point is made I'm sure
right so for us to think that the topic
of immigration does not affect us is
ludicrous because as we all can see we
are either immigrants ourselves or the
children of immigrants whether it be
from the subcontinent or from any other
part of Asia from Africa we all somehow
some way ended up in this room in Texas
but how did that happen it had to happen
through immigration the topic of
immigration and specifically us Mexico
immigration is one that's been heavily
entrenched in the US in US history for a
long time um but the topic of
immigration itself dates back until the
beginning of creation when Adam
alisam the the first immigrant ever was
Adam alisam Adam alisam immigrated from
where Al to where planet Earth the very
first
immigrant he political
Asylum one one way or another right
either way he immigrated somehow some
way by the will of Allah to planet Earth
and so did many other prophets um Allah
subhana wa tala says in the Quran and
this is clear proof that Allah himself
makes the issue of immigration known
whether it be for financial reasons
or the issue of immigration is made
clear as in the verse inaha and whoever
immigrates for the cause of Allah will
find on the earth many alternative
locations and abundance which is pretty
much the driving force of immigration
and whoever leaves his home as an
immigrant to Allah and his messenger and
then death overtakes him his reward has
already become incumbent upon Allah and
Allah is ever forgiving and
merciful so as I said earlier Adam Alam
the first immigrant other prophets like
him also
immigrated if you think of the story of
n when Allah subhana wa taala put a
flood on this Earth what happened to n
did he Lin up in the exact same spot
where he was at before Allah but Allah
subhana wa tala put him in a place that
was different than the place that he was
in originally therefore he is an
immigrant also the story of ibraim we
know that ibraim he left Arabia traveled
TOS why he is still an immigrant Lam and
his nephew immigrants mam left Egypt
went to Arabia went back to Egypt also
an immigrant Isa how is he an
immigrant
anybody in the
back exactly he was an he was a native
of Earth and Allah subhana wa tala made
Hijra for him by elevating him into the
heavens he is an immigrant and of course
the most perfect migration of Muhammad
abdah s. wasam
immigration heavily entrenched in our
religion so there's no escaping it now
now you cannot tell me that why should I
care about immigration because as we all
know it is the Sunnah of our beloved
messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam and
The Messengers and Prophets before
him Hijra migration whether it be for
the sake of Allah or for some other
reason is a part of our a believe it or
not and I am in no way shape or form
qualified to have that discussion with
you if you would like to bring it up
with one of the sh please go ahead and
do so but it is a part of
our uh the inhabitants of Medina when
the immigrants came the mun came from
Mecca to Medina there were people who
outright didn't like them uh I can't
remember the name of the person who was
supposed to be uh in charge of the
people of Medina before Prophet s wasam
came he didn't like that he didn't like
it at all because he wanted the power
also and there were also Jews who in
Medina didn't like the the changing of
power that the prophet wasallam brought
uh the ansar Muslims right Muslims who
treated the immigrants in the best way
possible and we all know the story of
ABD
and the history of civilization in
general the history of civil
civilization is basically one group of
people traveling to another land forming
setting up shop and then moving
somewhere else and anybody who says
otherwise needs to go back and and look
at the history and our own role our own
role in society dealing with the
difficulty of being an immigrant I'm
sure if you yourself have not
experienced some type of difficulty with
being an immigrant for sure your fathers
and mothers have you don't know how to
speak the language you're not used to
the Customs so many difficulties with
being an immigrant but the ansar
help the m and it is our role to help
the new the Muslims that come here and
also the people who are not Muslim who
have the potential of being
Muslims a brief history of the US Mexico
border policy uh the Treaty of wup
hialgo uh the peace treaty was between
the US and Mexico that ended the
Mexican-American war in
1848 Mexico then seeded
55% 55% of its pre-war territory to the
United States in exchange of course the
us heavy Spenders spent $15 million
equivalent to $313 million in 2006 for
this land for this land approximately
880,000 Mexicans were already living in
the area when it was seated to
Mexico as you can tell the entire State
of California Nevada and Utah were given
to the United States during this
secession parts of Wyoming col colado
Arizona and New Mexico were also seated
and then later on through the gadston
purchase the remainder of New Mexico and
Arizona were given to the United States
there's a saying amongst amongst chos uh
basically uh descendants of Mexican
immigrants that say people want us out
of this country but why because we
didn't jump the border the Border jumped
us the Border jumped us through the
Treaty of wadup
higo uh the earliest border enforcement
happened in the late
1800s after the Civil War after
reconstruction basically because the
main issue of reconstruction was to
establish a statehood after the big
Civil War the identity of the United
States was in crisis so the the way that
a a
state um basically establishes statehood
is by establishing borders and the first
border patrolmen were on Horseback
Believe It or Not 1924 as a response to
the prohibition Act of 1919 uh Mexicans
began bootlegging alcohol into the
United States and in 1924 the US Border
Patrol was
established uh guest worker program 1942
the brero program uh was created in
August as a response to World War II for
the Native Americans and I don't mean
that literally uh I'm sure you have some
family members that were either somehow
involved with or were influenced by
World War II the majority of Mal in
America were taken abroad to serve in
World War II and for the males who did
not go it was said that women would go
around with black roses giving it to
these gentlemen basically saying I'm
sorry that you're not a man because
you're not over there so with this huge
lack of Labor the US had no other option
but to import labor from
Mexico uh and the main two sources that
were needed the main two sectors were
railroads and agriculture because as you
all know railroads were a huge means of
transportation before the automobile
really caught on um as a result of this
uh huge import of Labor with
African-Americans also the issue of
racism was still there it wasn't just to
African-Americans but anybody of a
different color or of a different
country received um were the victims of
prejudice uh believe it or not this is
where the term wet bag came from uh
operation uh was in
1954 uh if you are amiliar with the
geography the border between Mexico and
Texas part of it is the Rio Grand Grande
right and the Mexicans call it the Rio
Bravo so the term came from when
people would cross from Mexico through
the river when they would get to the
other side of Texas when they would come
out of the river their backs would be
wet and that's how they came up with the
term wet
back uh the Reagan amnesty was huge I'm
sure if many of your parents were here
uh before 19 uh 84 for 1982 then they
were they definitely got their
citizenship somehow through the Reagan
amnesty act uh through the Reagan
amnesty the immigration reform and
Control Act of 1986 granted legal status
to 2.7 million people that were here
illegally before were here illegally
before but they gave him citizenship
anyway because they met certain criteria
but for the most part they were here
long enough that they gave them legal
status because they knew that there was
no way they were going to get rid of
them
next
slide uh after this is in the 90s now
the North American Free Trade Agreement
enacted on January 1st 1994 huge huge
consequences came because of this policy
um in and of itself basically the the
main gist of NAFTA to give you a a brief
idea is that it eliminated tariffs and
trading um taxes basically from Mexico
US and Canada so they could Import and
Export freely without companies having
to pay um these taxes and it's similar
to what the European Union has which
I'll talk about in a little bit later a
little bit later um sure many of you
recognize this gentleman uh n n Chomsky
uh this is his criticism on NAFTA he
says the only true words in the phrase
North American Free Trade Agreement seem
to be North America as what is called
trade is in reality mostly restricted
incorporate transfers of products and
services meaning that the only people
who are benefiting from NAFTA are the
big business big corporations the people
the masses are not in any way shape or
form benefiting from this policy go
ahead um Adam Smith if you're familiar
at all with um the uh development of our
nation 1776 the whole Phil philosophical
movement Adam Smith was a huge Scottish
philosopher and political Economist uh
Economist he wrote The Wealth of Nations
and one of his criticisms about free
trade was that by obstructing the free
circulation of Labor uh basically
countries would be at advant some
countries would have more advantages
than others and if free uh tra trade and
labor was restricted then you would have
problems uh within NAFTA labor is
restricted as we'll talk about with the
immigrants in just a little bit but the
European Union on the other hand they
allow the free movement of Labor from
borders without any kind of restriction
workers from Spain can go work in France
without any kind of uh restriction this
is something that has allowed the
European Union as we know well today in
our current economic status that the
European Union is flourishing despite
despite the economic trouble that it's
going through it's flourishing how
because of the the very well-crafted
policy that the European Union is is
based on go
ahead uh so now the real issue Mexican
migration the issue that is very heavily
convoluted very heavily skewed based off
of what we see in the media
today um so what should Muslims know
what should we all know what should we
take from this gathering tonight that's
going to benefit us whether it be in
Islam or whether it be in basically our
social dealings when when we're outside
of our homes in the
M uh the United States if you look at
the enactment of NAFTA was which which
was in which year anybody 94 right look
at this look at 1994 and how much the
United States is spending on Border
enforcement by the end of the century
it's
doubled that's in direct response to the
to to prove that NAFTA is not working
and then you have um immigration
Naturalization Services in red in yellow
you have Immigration and Customs
Enforcement then you have in blue and
dark blue you have the United States um
customs and immigration services and in
the light blue at the the very top you
have basically uh expenses that go into
technology like biometric data
fingerprinting at the border and stuff
like that um so this is the amount of
money $20 million a year to enforce our
borders 20
million a
year not including the war and all the
other technology that the Pentagon is
trying to develop this is just on the
border and if you've read public opinion
polls and if you listen to the news
you'll know that it's not working you'll
know that it's not working because you
can even think to yourself I'm seeing
more and more people on the street
corner every day it's not working but
yet my money is still going here and not
even is it still going here it's going
more of it's going there so what's the
point is this working if it's not
working then we need to find a viable
solution the Border enforcement project
uh started in uh 1996 the late 1990s um
which consisted of four phases the first
phase was to increase Manpower and
physical obstacles along the actual
border between the US and Mexico phase
two was uh remote video surveillance
like cameras and things like that along
the border phase three was the virtual F
virtual fence uh the secure border
initiative also known as SBI net or SBI
Network and phase four the increasing of
P penalties for illegal entry these are
the four steps that the US government
has tried to implement in order to stop
the flow of illegal immigrants coming
into this country um San Diego's um
border enforcement program was called
operation gatekeeper and El Paso it was
called operation hold the line so they
have different names but they they are
nonetheless working
together um this is just one of the
physical barriers that uh one of the
walls what it looks like keep going um
the number of Agents border patrol
agents has tripled since
1996 again tax dollars because that's
the only place that they're getting this
money for from 1996 a little less than
6,000 border patrol agents by the by
2009 over
18,000 18,000 border patrol agents now
some of you might say well it's creating
jobs you know for people that don't have
any jobs well is it really creating jobs
because if you think about it more
border patrol agents just means that
there's more and more people coming in
and if there's more and more people
coming in then that's less jobs for US
citizens so it's it's definitely not
what you know what it appears to
be um if you take a look I don't know if
you can see it the at the bottom of the
screen there's uh what's called the
primary fence that's on the Mexico side
it's a very dilapidated metal fence with
a bunch of holes in it um and about
maybe 200 yards in front of that is the
secondary fence on the US side as you
can tell there's a huge difference
between the primary fence and the
secondary fence in the middle no man's
land is basically where the US border
patrol operates they'll drive by they'll
walk by just to make sure that nobody's
trying to to escape because if the walls
were very close together then someone
could hop both of them and they would
disappear whereas if they leave this
amount of land through rough terrain
they're more likely to get caught if
they do indeed pass the First
Fence um this is a razor sharp
concertina wire which is laced all
throughout Tijuana if you've been to
Tijuana um you'll see this wire
basically all along the border as
another physical deterrent to to Mexican
uh immigrants um Imperial Dunes
California now a lot of the border
between the Mexico and the United States
is Desert so how do you Patrol that how
do you build a fence on Sand they may
they're ingenious when they want to be
they have this fence I don't know if you
can see the little black strips on the
bottom basically these these black poles
are floating on the sand so when the
level of sand changes the poles drop and
the fence drops also so the fence will
always remain the the same height
equivalent to the level of sand so it's
not like they'll be able to wait until
the sand goes down for for them to be
able to jump the fence or wait till the
sand goes up to be able to jump the
fence because the poles will make it so
that this it's always sitting on the top
soil of the
sand uh just more border section along
um the this one uh the new border fences
are 20 ft High and um 20 ft high and
it's it's funny because it seems as if
the higher and higher the fence the the
higher and higher they just have to jump
because it doesn't seem like it's
working anyway and it seems um there's a
lot of uh criticism that's circulating
especially amongst journalists and if
you take a look at the next slide uh
this is actually a political cartoon uh
it says on the far left under
construction 20 foot high border fence
pointing to the US and then right in
front front of it it says Raul's 21t
ladder rental so this is just a jab at
the US border patrol of saying that look
you're it's not working you need to do
something
else um if you can see I know it's
really light in light blue in light blue
that's the completed fence that's the
entire border from the edge of uh San
Cedro all the way to El Paso is
completely sealed
off
completely the only thing that remains
is the lovely state of
Texas okay the entire border between
Texas and Mexico is
completely unprotected now a lot of it's
desert but still this has made things a
lot a lot more complicated for the
immigrants because if you take a look at
California Arizona New Mexico El Paso
there are major cities along the borders
El Paso San Diego okay these are all
major cities that are along the border
so what used to happen was when Mexican
immigrants would cross the border in in
Tijuana in Sedro it would be a 3-hour
walk to civilization you would simply
cross the mountain you would hop into a
car and you would disappear but now
what's happening with the the uh the
fence that's being built in these
civiliz civilized areas is that it's
pushing the mode of Entry Eastward and
now the immigrants are having to travel
Eastward in or in order to get into the
United States and when they do that what
used to be a three-hour trip is turning
into an eight 18 hour trip a 27-hour
trip and now it's not only through low
lowland cool coastal areas now it's
through desert so now immigrants have to
pick the time of year that they can
travel because if they travel in the
summer they'll dehydrate and they'll die
if they travel in the winter they'll
freeze to death so they have to be very
careful when they cross the
border phase two remote video
surveillance um this
this is basically a picture of um one of
the the camera sites I'm sure we've all
seen them at a mall or anything like
that typical stuff but now it's facing
the border and which which is really
ironic is that these are on the border
between United States and Mexico but the
the camps the the where the um ins and
the and ice is centered are miles away
from this so even if they saw them the
the response time is going to be so long
that are they really expecting to catch
all these people
uh phase three sbiet secure border
initiative network uh basically this is
something from the future okay this is
something that personally reminds me of
Short Circuit the 80s movie I don't know
if any of you are that old okay good
alhamdulillah and Johnny 5 right okay so
if you go to the next slide um SBI net
$2.7 billion do we're no longer talking
in millions billion doll project to
secure the Border next slide
and it
failed and you see where I got Johnny
fire from kind of looks like um 28 miles
of Arizona border $2.7 billion did not
work tax dollars again our
pockets phase four increasing penalties
for illegal entry this is the last phase
of the Border enforcement strategy is to
increase penalties for illegal entry now
I don't know how many of you watch
football uh but if you heard recently
that Dante worth hit somebody and he got
and he killed them it was manslaughter
but he killed them he got 28 days in
jail you cross the border illegally you
don't kill anybody you can get up to six
months for crossing the border illegally
and somebody died and they only got 28
days see this is the the inequality in
our own justice system that's completely
skewed and slanted to treat immigrants
more harshly
um the way phase 4 works is that they
build camps like this and what ends up
happening is that they catch somebody
and they hold them it's like basically
prison they put him in jail for an
extended extended period of time and
then they let him go each immigrant per
day costs us 90 to $119 a day to house
this individual and there's
thousands again is this something that
we really want to our tax dollars to go
to so the real question does current US
immigration control policy deter and
prevent illegal entry because bottom
line that's the main issue is it
working um in a recent study did of uh
Yuko uh immigrants which is basically um
I don't know if you're familiar with the
geography of Mexico um the part right
beneath Texas that kind of Slants out
that's yukatan uh Yuko immigrants um
were interviewed 64% of them said that
it's extremely difficult to across the
border so obviously there it's being
perceived that border enforcement is
being perceived by immigrants the
question is is it stopping
them um 87% of these immigrants say that
it's very dangerous to cost without
papers almost half said that they know
somebody that died trying to cross the
border almost
half um immigrant fatalities skyrocketed
after uh 1996 when operation gatekeeper
and hold the line were first um inacted
look how it jumps from 96 to 97 almost
doubles and then the year after that
doubles again and that it peaked in 2005
at
516
fatalities in one year from trying to
cross the
border now if we compare this with the
Berlin Wall which I'm sure everybody has
heard something about the Berlin Wall
was built to separate basically East
Germany from West Germany uh you know
democracy and communism um 239 people
died over the expanse of 28
years since 1995 over 5,000 people have
died making this border us Mexico the
most dangerous Border in the world to
cross
physically and it's not and the money
that we're putting into it is not
deterring people from
coming so now again the real question
does current US immigration control
prevent or deter illegal
entry um statistics say yes absolutely
total apprehensions has gone down what
does that mean that less and less people
are trying to get across right but if
any of you if any of you have taken a
stats class you know that you can Juke
the stats to make something appear that
the way that it doesn't really appear
uh the Michael shof the uh current
Secretary of the Department of Homeland
Security said this is an indication that
there are fewer attempts to cross the
border illegally the efforts we've
undertaken at the border have begun to
turn the tide of ille illegal
immigration alhamdulillah right okay
it's working if shirov says it's working
then it has to be working right well how
what's is there another way we can
interpret these stats let's take a
look um
reduce circularity in migration okay the
border is getting more and more
difficult to cross so if it's getting
more and more difficult to cross do you
think people would be more and more
willing to go home and come back and go
home and come back no if they get across
they're going to stay there there's no
way that they're going to risk crossing
the border again life threatening danger
if they make it they're staying so
that's one of the ways we can interpret
these stats is that there's less
apprehensions because less people are
crossing and less people are crossing
because they're deciding to stay
currently it costs
$5,000 to hire a a a coyote which is a
person Smuggler to smuggle somebody from
Mexico to the United States in the
1980s
$800 to
$55,000 so they're getting the money
from somewhere and where are they
getting the money from from their
relatives here
so it's really having a a uh ironic
effect if you think about it the
immigrants are paying the US to build a
fence and the families are paying the
family the other family to come across
to to jump the fence so it's very
circular if you think about
it uh this is a picture I don't know if
you can tell of how people are getting
across the border through main ports of
Entry 28% of all illegal border
crossings are happening through ports of
Entry like main you know Tijuana El Paso
border areas this is an example of how a
woman was shoved into the front of a car
and smuggled across illegally and the
right the picture on the left shows you
what it looks like to immigration
officers because they just need to put
the uh glove compartment door and it's
pretty much set and the way they would
pull her out is basically they would
remove the front of that of the steering
column and pull her out and people are
willing to pay thousands to be stuffed
like
this to get across if it means that much
to
them you know maybe that says something
about our own our own policy um current
IM immigrants were asked would you say
it is more difficult or less difficult
or the same to find a job in the US a
year ago this is you know pertaining to
the current status of the economy and
90% of them said it's more difficult so
the the economy is definitely having an
effect on the immigrants also but
they're still coming why because it's
better than back
home uh almost 25% of undocumented
people said that the thing they fear the
most is Anda which is basically to walk
down the street something that we take
for granted every single day to be able
to walk down the street and not have to
look over your shoulder the majority not
the majority but there I'm sure there's
a minority in here whose parents left
their home country because of that exact
same
fear they couldn't practice their
religion freely they couldn't practice
whatever it is they wanted to freely so
they fled and now they're here the
immigrants they want to stay here but
they have to face this every single day
uh this is a quote from an illegal
immigrant that actually was detained she
said the border patrol first told me if
we apprehend you a second time we're
going to put you in jail for 2 weeks and
and if we apprehend you a third time
it's going to be a month the fourth time
3 months and you can be in jail up to a
year I told them I have to cross they
asked me if I was sure I said they said
maybe you should just go
home I said but I have to cross no
matter what the majority of us Mexicans
are going to keep
trying they going to have to until the
situation at home changes they're going
to cross they're going to keep coming
so in the end what are some alternatives
to our current immigration strategy
number one increasing awareness I'm sure
inshallah that I shed some light on some
things you didn't know and these issues
definitely if they reach a large number
of people could definitely influence
legislation um initiating policies
directed at penalizing Big Business a
lot of these businesses believe it or
not are in cahoots with the government
huh isn't that surprising the government
will actually call the business and tell
them hey we're going to come and raid
your business tomorrow okay everybody
you have the day off tomorrow come back
the next day immigration comes there's
nobody to arrest the day after the
people come back and business resumes as
usual and for those who are caught and
the hu big example is Tyson chicken
farms they actually will pay the person
Smuggler to smuggle their employee
across so they can um
so they can continue to work for them uh
the national amnesty that's something
that's being talked about again in in
this Administration but there's a lot of
um uh resentment towards that idea
especially amongst the Republicans um
fixing the current immigration system uh
visas the current quota for visas for
Mexico is
60,000 per year that quota fills up in
10
minutes what about the rest of the
individuals that are trying to come uh
fixing the push pull factors especially
NAFTA again NAFTA um since it eliminated
these tariffs it allowed it allowed us
businesses to flood the Mexican market
with cheap products which eliminated
competition amongst Mexican workers and
since the Mexican workers went out of
business that was their reason for
immigration so we need to address these
these pushpull factors and obviously
improve the employment base in migrants
send in areas if they had jobs in the
first place they wouldn't be immigrating
here to take American jobs so that's
definitely some issues that um we need
to think about for your time uh sorry
that I took so long and if anybody has
any questions uh please feel raise your
hand um wherever you go you're going to
find drug cartels I mean look at the the
Italian mafia in Chicago and New York uh
you know they've been here for hundreds
of years yet nobody's talking about
sending them back right believe it or
not guns are the biggest export the
United States has on on the black market
where are these guns going to Mexico
where are the drugs coming coming back
and I don't want to sound like a
conspiracy theorist but it is the US
government and the Mexican Government
who are working together to to sort of
work on legislation for these borders so
it's it it it it's it seems to S stand
that they are semi- responsible for what
comes into their country you know and
believe it or not there are people who
in the government who are making money
off of allowing things like this to
happen huge corruption scandals as we
just saw in New Jersey I believe huge uh
I think it was um I can't remember who
it was but somebody from the New Jersey
government was recently arrested on
corruption charges so corruption is
not there you go two Mayors five rabbis
okay no imams so corruption is something
huge and no doubt the amnesty that I was
talking about was definitely something
that would have to have conditions
nobody with a criminal record for
example would be allowed to receive
amnesty so there are definitely things
that we should take into consideration
especially with the influx of drugs and
crime and everything like that but it
shouldn't eliminate the other 95% of the
people who are here from receiving uh
legal status and I I completely agree uh
how many of you would how many of you
would like to pay $10 for an
orange because that's what it would cost
if we paid these Mexican workers minimum
wage so they get paid literally maybe $2
a day $3 a day so we can have cheap
produce housekeeping jobs that Americans
back breaking labor that common
Americans are not going to are not going
to take believe it or not white
Americans receive the most amount of
social welfare in this country not
African-Americans not Latinos not Native
Americans white people no
offense
so just just to let you know U um two
more questions and then I think I got to
wrap it up I would agree to some extent
uh definitely the US Labor uh the US
economy might shrink a little bit no
doubt just because there's such a
disparity between the US and Mexican
economy however if we think long term
the amount of jobs that will be
available in Mexico especially with
infrastructure especially things with
Health Care things that they're so um
behind on it gives huge opportunities
for American Business to go over there
to put labor there to hire Mexican
workers over there to do these kinds of
projects but since there's so many
restrictions it the the labor isn't
allowed to get across as easily these
all of these I don't know if you've paid
attention all of these border
enforcements were only on Mexico none of
this is happening in Canada none of it
so there's definitely a um an economic
issue that needs to be taken into
consideration however if we think long
term and for the benefit of these three
countries countries allowing free
movement of Labor is definitely
something that in the long term is going
to be absolutely beneficial to all to
all three countries um so in a nutshell
uh NAFTA 1994 uh basically what happened
with NAFTA is that all tariffs were
eliminated basically allowing uh
businesses to Import and Export freely
uh what ended up happening is that uh
the US government gives um money uh
stiens to Farmers to help them produce
use the Mexican government does not it
all comes out of pocket for from the
Mexican people so what used the before
NAFTA Americans would be allowed to sell
let's say for example corn would be
allowed to sell corn in Mexico for $2 an
ear including tariffs and everything
Mexican Farmers since they were in
Mexico would sell it for $1 now Mexicans
have the option of buying the US corn or
the Mexican corn obviously they're going
to buy the cheaper corn now with these
tariffs eliminated now with since the US
gives over $1 billion a year to the
agricultural sector which is more than
the US uh The Mexican government has I
believe uh to spend in all of the other
sectors
combined is now flooding the Mexican
market with cheap synthetic okay um you
know uh chemically processed corn which
is much cheaper to manufacture and
they're flooding it in the Mexican
market now what used to cost $2 an ear
is
75 versus a dollar Mexicans are now
going to say I'm going to buy the
cheaper corn which is the US corn what
happens to the Mexican corn Farmers they
go out of business and if there's no
business in Mexico where are they going
to go to the
US um before and after the the the issue
of illegal immigration was was not
really talked about now it's something
that's so you hear it every day simply
because of the factors in Mexico that
are are going on and if you think about
it uh who in charge of all this
legislation The Mexican government for
the most part right along with the US
government Vicente FKS was the Mexican
president uh before um Calderon the
president who's currently in Mexico can
anybody tell me where Vicente Fox was
educated Harvard so how can you expect
somebody to be educated in the US and
have a different approach to the problem
when they're talking to basically their
their instructors their economic
professors so until something you know
happens you know this this situation is
not going to go away and you're going to
have problems uh literally uprisings I
don't know if any of you heard of the
zapatistas in in southern Mexico it's a
Guerilla group that was you know
basically their first real you know
terrorist act happened as a result of
NAFTA um so do we have time for one more
okay go well um again NAFTA was created
by American educated Mexican
administrators and by American educated
American administrators so they're
obviously going to come up with a policy
that in theory is supposed to help
develop both countries when in reality
it only helps big business meic and
American and it kind of eliminates the
masses the people at the bottom um if
you look at example look at the rest of
Latin America for example I mean the
most developed country in Latin America
believe it or not is Costa
Rica just because they they have they've
had issues with taking loans from the
World Bank and IMF IMF and World Bank
charge 25% interest rates to Africa to
South America so by the time they finish
done paying off the interest they still
have to worry about the loan and there's
no way that they're going to be able to
pay all this money back especially since
the World Bank and uh the international
mon monetary fund say you can use the
money but you cannot use it in this way
and you can only use it like this so
you're you're you're basically giving
them poison and they're going to take it
because they have nothing else they're
desperate so honestly it all boils down
to Greed and it all boils down to people
taking advantage of other people well
with extreme situations what ends up
happening extreme consequences and who
knows but if things get bad enough they
could literally militarize the border
and they can put guns on the border and
physically keep people from entering the
United
States it's a possibility and I mean the
US population three years ago just
reached according to the census 300
million people
I mean who knows until there's some kind
of economic strategy that's beneficial
for both countries it's still going to
get worse right so I mean obviously we
know that this isn't working current
border enforcement strategy isn't
working and if they want to keep
toughening it up and toughening it up
who is it going to cost us well believe
it or not and I had a slide but due to
time constraints I took it out there's a
slide where local enforcement agencies
are actually in cooperation with I and
the ins to actually apprehend illegal
immigrants believe it or not the major
cities that that house the majority of
illegal immigrants do not work in
cooperation with the ins such as Houston
the Bay Area Los Angeles uh New York
Chicago these major cities do not work
with the ins and Ice to apprehend these
illegal immigrants they give the Dirty
Work to them but there are other states
such as especially um the southeastern
states Florida Georgia South Carolina
all these states are working in
collaboration with ins and Ice to
apprehend these illegal immigrants and I
mean look at look at the the survey
almost 25% of people are afraid to walk
down the street and why is that because
they're afraid of being apprehended and
not only apprehended they because when
people get apprehended from the US they
don't get tossed in
Tijuana they don't get tossed in huarez
they get tossed in Mexico City they get
tossed in waka they get tossed in
Chiapas the furthest part of Mexico so
they have the least likelihood of coming
back this is and they'll pay they'll pay
for planes to fly them all the way out
there they'll pay for boats to sail all
the way down there to drop these people
off this is the extent that they're
willing to go to to get rid of these
people and it's only costing us money so
why not make some money and you know
have people pay taxes pay Social
Security pay you know you know like I
said taxes on their income so we can
generate some money that inshallah will
will help this
country okay no more questions if you
have a question you can please come and
see me
um just like to say to uh brother James
uh for for that very very good
presentation uh and I'm very very happy
that actually he came uh with this idea
he's putting giv me some credit in rally
was just a little conversation and I
just uh you know like a Muhammad sh
threw it back at him to do go do it um
alhamdulillah uh it's I'm very happy
that this is the type of wild card
session that we're going to have um I
know some of you are like well what is
this all about but I think mallah he he
put it in perspective this is very
relevant for us for many many reasons
first and foremost as I've said in many
many of my classes if we don't become
socially relevant in America we're going
to become totally irrelevant okay and I
believe in this as a Muslim is that if
you don't become socially involved in
your community you will become
completely neglected in your community
therefore when push comes to shove who
are the Muslims what do they care about
us if we haven't contributed and I think
that it is high time one of the biggest
problems I see in the Muslim Community
we only care about what we perceive to
be Islamic causes drugs is not an
Islamic cause corruption is not an
Islamic cause illegal immigration is not
an Islamic Clause we only get involved
in causes that we have deemed to be
Islamic and of of course the most
important ftin and all of course is very
important but let us not forget that we
living in a community if we don't show
some type of interest in what's
happening in the community then as I
said when push comes to sh we're not a
part of the community why should they
care about us also don't think that this
is uh this is not completely relevant to
our lives if laws are passed they will
affect us and our relatives if laws are
passed they immediately affect all of us
immigrants except for one or two OD
exceptions here but all of us are
immigrants alhamdulillah uh
I'm getting back at you for quite a lot
actually so it's
it's all right he tries to speak Udu
with me it's like um
ticktock that's what a CL say that
louder so that the people can
hear no well okay for for where he's
coming from okay but in any case getting
back to getting back to the the topic at
hand um for example 19 19 17 was when
the yellow Acts were passed 1916 or
something 1917 you all know that we have
a community of Arab Americans uh fourth
generation in Detroit right all of you
know this why is it that we don't have
any immigrants from that point up until
1967 because they passed an act against
Chinese people and because we simply
were the other we were excluded in 1917
they became scared that the Chinese are
coming via immigration so they passed an
act which is called the yellow
act I'm not making this up do a Google
do a Wikipedia it's called the yellow
act the yellow race act right and so it
basically prevented Chinese people
primarily from immigrating to America
but in the fine print it also included
basically any country that they didn't
like it was only Italy and and Germany
others that they allowed immigration
unqualified if you landed on Ellis
Island before that time you basically by
25 cents you get a a type of green card
of the equivalent if you simply got to
Alis Island you could become an American
okay because they needed immigrants 1917
was when they first began little bit of
their racism so they passed this act up
until 1917 we had probably 30,000
Muslims come from uh Syria from Lebanon
from Turkey from Bosnia uh from a lot of
Muslim lands the First Mid in Hartford
Connecticut where I'm living close by
1930 something the immigrants came
before the act and then eventually 10 15
years they built their Masid there 19
they're still operating Why didn't
immigrants come in the 30s 40s 50s 60s
because of anti-japanese and Chinese
sentiment right it did affect us my
father came in 1963 here before they
passed the had to come as a student and
he had to sign a paper saying he's going
back in two years he came as a student
he went back in two years but he got a
sponsor in the meantime it was very
difficult back then things have changed
my point is this is very relevant to us
also uh I believe it is part of the that
the prophet got involved in social
causes sociala of his time and if you
don't believe
me you know the story right what is it
except a social cause what is do you
remember that when a certain person's
rights were Stripped Away and none of
the otheris helped and so the prophet
along with a group of people this is
before the coming of Islam he got
together to fight for what we would call
civil rights I mean this is exactly what
we call civil rights a Noni was treated
differently than AI a non
was robbed and cheated and nobody helped
him because they're Alli whites only if
you're not AI it's not going to help and
the prophet many years later he said I
attended that meeting in IB jud's house
and I was of those who dipped my hand
they couldn't sign they dipped their
hands in perfume that's why it's called
the perfumed
treaty okay it's perfume you put your
hand in perfume then you put it on the
in front of everybody's watching so
that's your your signature the prophet
said I would not give up my place in
that room for many red camels I for a
lot of money I'd love to be there and he
also said if I were called to uphold
that treaty I would uphold it even now
in Islam so the point is that being
socially relevant it makes you connected
with the people in this time that we're
living in I think it's even more
important that we revive the Sunnah one
more point we think we have a difficult
as a Muslim Community you know honestly
honestly this community has it much
worse than we do but I honestly think it
speaks a lot about us when we look at
all of of this security and we realize
we're on the other side of the fence
we're on the elitist side and we think
we're The Underdogs we're on the other
side of the fence I think we should
speak out just for the sake of Human
Rights and decency just for the sake of
showing people and the day the day that
you see a Muslim being interviewed on
television fighting against local
corruption supporting antidrug campaigns
right supporting things that the
community cares about you see a Muslim
in a KFI you see a sister in
the day that that happens that is the
day when the Americans see a Muslim
they're not going to think Foreigner as
long as all we're doing is championing
foreign causes of course there's going
to be this foreign stigma with us so I'm
really happy that you gave a very good
presentation and alhamdulillah I'm happy
that this has
occurred