As the devil's civilization continues to fall from it's plight, the government, despite it's facade of racial and cultural tolerance (remember the "American melting pot" idea?), marches on in it's crusade against anyone who was not born within U.S. borders. They persist with making our day to day lives more and more difficult with their policies of discrimination and exclusion. The policy of racial profiling has been and remains very contraversial, as it affects so many people, especially those whom are technical not in any violation of the law. However, as time goes on, we bear witness that just being who you are, in and of it self, is a violation of U.S. law. It was the census bureau and social scientist, along with urban anthropologist's that gave the prediction of people of color outnumbering "white" people in the U.S. by 2050. Which is quite frightening for those with racist tendencies. Especially considering that a large portion of that population may not even be U.S. born, or at the very least, 1st generation. This matters in the mindset of the racially privileged and economic/political elite because the majority would have more of a popular influence behind policy in the U.S. and therefore those policies which complimented the old majority would be more than likely re-written or altered in order to compliment the new majority. And as we see, today's mathematics is 'wisdom power'. The words, ways and actions of the Original people having the greatest influence or power over daily life in 'Amekikia'. That which is only the inevitable (we outnumber them, of European descent, on the planet Earth) is seen by the right-winged politicos as some sort of conspiracy to destroy the "American way of life", a code phrase for "white way of life". In the mean time, we can't go to the 'mercado', the bus stop, the park with our 'ninos' without extreme paranoia, a sense of being picked up and swept off to some Guatanamo prison for 'spics and darkies'. They ultimately want to prevent a "colorful uprising", something that was feared by the Spanish Empire for years throughout their colonies. In the early 1800's the colonial government of El Salvador, after abolishing slavery, halted all immigration of those of African descent in their country. Many countries, while not abolishing slavery or completely halting immigration, simply set out on campaign's to incourage European immgration and settlement in their countries in efforts to combat the strong African-Indigenous prescence. Whilst, in places like Puerto Rico, whom had a considerably large "free-colored" population, the European immigration only widened the gap in numbers between the white populus and the sector of color. At various points in Puerto Rican history the number of 'free-blacks' rivaled those of whites and despite being 'free', they were still non-white and were stigmatized by a view of having non-white 'ways' which threatened those culture of those in 'power'.
Is Riding the Bus a Ticket to Jail?
By Caroline Kim and Jenna Loyd
In December 2007, Artemio and two of his friends were traveling by bus through Syracuse, New York on their way to their homes in Mexico. Rather than celebrating Christmas with their families, however, the three men were arrested by immigration agents at a bus station. They were then detained at a county jail before being transferred to the ICE facility in Batavia, New York, and eventually deported to Mexico.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, also known as the Border Patrol, confirms that its agents in Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo check the citizenship status of travelers passing through by bus and train every day. These three cities are within 100 miles of the US-Canadian border. But more important than the border zone is the location of these cities on a major transportation corridor linking the Northeast (New York City and Boston) with the Midwest (Cleveland and Chicago). Border Patrol agents use Syracuse’s location as the functional equivalent of the border to police people traveling within the interior of the country.
Agents check for citizenship in the bus and train station—often waiting at the Greyhound ticket counter, or watching people as they disembark for food—and onboard buses and trains already filled with passengers. People who have witnessed or been subject to Border Patrol agents questioning describe two practices: agents explicitly target a group of people or ask everyone on board about their citizenship status.
According to reports from the Detainment Task Force, a Northern New York group, people routinely singled out for questioning include those who appear to be Mexican, Central American, South Asian, Asian, Afro-Caribbean, or Middle Eastern. Border Patrol officials deny that the agency racially profiles, insisting that they look for suspicious behaviors and, “question people with blond hair and blue eyes as much as anyone else.” But common understandings of race in the U.S. fuse nationality and ethnicity so that some groups are permanently deemed to be “foreign.”
The story of Tomas, who is from Guatemala, illustrates the ways in which law enforcement’s use of racial profiling—and the collaboration of local law enforcement with Border Patrol agents—impedes people’s ability to travel.
In July 2007, Tomas and his friend Salvador were driving to a doctor’s appointment. As they pulled out of the toll plaza from the I-90 throughway in Syracuse, a state trooper stopped them. Tomas has a valid U.S. driver’s license and a properly registered vehicle. The state trooper gave no indication of why he had stopped the vehicle, but he did ask Tomas and Salvador about their immigration status and then called Border Patrol agents. “The police officer stopped us because we have Hispanic faces,” Tomas said.
Tomas has had the same experience traveling by bus. Last October he was traveling to Syracuse on Greyhound when Border Patrol agents boarded the bus at the Rochester bus station. “The Border Patrol agents questioned all the Hispanic, Middle Eastern and Asian passengers,” he recalled. “They did not question any of the white passengers except some women who were wearing veils. Border Patrol had dogs with them and checked the whole bus. They even looked in the bathroom.”
A separate incident occurred in December when Tomas was at the Syracuse bus station with another friend. They were speaking to each other in Spanish as they approached the ticket counter where a Border Patrol agent was stationed. “As soon as the Border Patrol agent heard us speaking Spanish, he asked me for my papers,” he said.
Even when Latino travelers produce documents proving their legal status, they are not safe from harassment.
When Tomas finally boarded the bus and arrived in Rochester, Border Patrol was there as well. “I saw them [Border Patrol] on the platform questioning two Hispanic men. The men gave them permanent resident cards. The Border Patrol agent didn’t believe them. He took the cards and called somewhere else. The men had to wait for twenty minutes.” The two men were eventually released.
Tomas’s testimony is not unique. A professor at Syracuse University who is a naturalized citizen originally from the Dominican Republic has been questioned multiple times in his travels and a Syracuse University student who is a U.S. citizen of South Asian descent was separated from his wife, a legal permanent resident, and both interrogated about their status.
Original source: http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=304
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