The weekly newsletter of the Mexico Solidarity Project

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February 19, 2025

Out of the Shadows: A Golden Ticket

Meizhu Lui, for the editorial team

California championed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

Doctors were concerned about the eyesight of prisoners and hostages being released in Israel/Gaza, fearing that when they emerged from the shadows after a long incarceration, the sunlight could damage their eyes.

For immigrants in the US living without documentation, it’s also much like living underground, imprisoned in a cage of fear. All they have is gone, including their human dignity. Luisa Martinez tells us what that was like for a young woman desperately wanting to make something better of her life.

She says that when she finally got her work permit, it was as valuable to her as a gold nugget, a ticket to the upper world where the sun shines.

The freedom to move not only benefits the migrant; it benefits the place where they land. Nowhere is that more true than the US — its economic success has relied on the constant infusion of new workers from around the world. As Alex González Ormerod, editor of The Mexico Political Economist, said in a recent interview about the migrant crisis, “The crisis isn’t because they’re coming, the crisis is because you’ve criminalized them.”

My Chinese migrant ancestors during the 1840s gold rush called San Francisco “jinshan,” golden mountain. But by 1882, Chinese were legally banned from entry, while European migrants entered freely — showing that the issue is not migration itself. After 1882, the Chinese “illegals” had to find ways around the law, including pretending to be Mexicans and coming across what was then an open southern border!

US leaders whose ancestors may have come out of the shadows are now blinded by the light. They ignore the role newcomers have played in making the US “great.” As in Mexico, migrants should be recognized as “heroes,” not branded as criminals.

For a deeper dive into current news and analysis in English, check out our media website. And definitely see the new English podcast ¡Soberanía! (Sovereignty) with José Luis Granados Ceja and Kurt Hackbarth. 

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Socialism: Dignity Without Papers

You became a tireless organizer for immigrant rights with a passion that grew from your own experience. Can you speak about the psychological effects of living without papers?

Yes. I like to explain it by comparing clinical depression and situational depression. In my mid-twenties, I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder. My university-provided psychiatrist said clinical depression was not about feeling sad but about feeling a paralyzing sense of hopelessness. My future seemed hopeless — I was in danger of flunking out of school. Not graduating from college, I thought at the time, meant continuing the cycle of poverty I was born into and never achieving the emotional and material stability we all crave.

Not having documents was another type of depression. It may have been situational, but it didn’t feel any different from clinical depression. As a second-class person, I had no hope for the future. I couldn’t get a regular job without a Social Security number; my jobs were “under the table” and exactly the jobs you’d imagine. My bosses often stole my wages, and I was sexually harassed. Both these crimes happened again after I got my legal papers — but without papers, complaining was never an option.

It’s illegal to drive without a license. I had to take three buses to work, two of which ran only once an hour. At my job as a prep cook and dishwasher, I had to get to the bus stop by 7:30 am to arrive at work by 10 am. After my shift, I took two more buses to my second job at another restaurant and worked till 10 pm.

South Florida’s transportation system is unreliable — sometimes the bus didn’t come. My pay was a whopping $6 per hour. Once, I ran out of money halfway to work and remember sitting utterly defeated outside a Publix supermarket asking people for change. I had no access to a bank account and could only carry cash. A kind woman gave me a couple dollars, and I made it to work. 

I made friends with one of the bus drivers, a friendly Mexican guy. One day, some biker-looking guys got on the bus and started saying racist things to us: “Mexicans are cockroaches! Go home!” I am Chilean, not Mexican, but that didn’t matter to them. My bus driver friend intentionally drove past their bus stop and left them standing there while yelling at them, “Viva México!” I was so in awe that he refused to take their shit! 

I couldn’t go to college, and that was the worst thing. When I tried to apply to community college, the nice woman in the office told me that because the 2001 plane hijackers had used tourist visas to apply to flight school, they no longer permitted people on expired tourist visas to enroll. She suggested that I enroll as an international student — at fees five times higher!  Without legal status, of course I had no access to financial aid. On my $6 an hour, she may as well have said it cost a million dollars per semester.

How did you gain legal status?

But eventually, one hot, sunny day in July, I received the permit in the mail. I shut the door to the only room in our apartment and cried. Finally — I could get a job, go to college, get a driver’s license without fear. It felt like the permit was made of gold!

What were the psychological effects of hearing others use the term “illegal?”

One time, in my teens, I was visiting a white friend and casually mentioned that I wasn’t born here. I thought it was fine to mention because she was my friend. Her grandmother was in the room. Her eyes got wide; she pointed at me and said, “You’re illegal!” I felt my heart drop into my stomach but didn’t say anything back. My friend tried to laugh it off and change the subject, but I was terrified. I never went to her house again and vowed never to mention where I was born to white people. I felt it was a shameful secret to be Latin American.

What ultimately made you gain your sense of dignity?

I read Noam Chomsky’s Latin America: From Colonization to Globalization and finally learned why so many Latin Americans have to live in the United States — because of generations of Western repression, forced handover of natural resources, and counterrevolution. My perspective evolved as I learned about Latin American struggles against Western imperialism — and unlearned falsehoods about our own revolutions.

Most importantly, I learned to turn shame into pride. Puerto Rican journalist Juan Gonzalez said, “those of us from the Global South come to the US to reclaim our share of the resources that have been stolen from our home countries by the Global North.” It was a huge breakthrough! I wasn’t here to take anything away from US citizens; I was here to get what was unavailable to me under the US-imposed Chilean dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

That was the moment the anger in my heart grew bigger than my fear of the US government or La Migra. That was the moment I started to feel dignity. I could fight back, like my Mexican bus driver friend. But my method would be community organizing.

Is a socialist perspective essential to solving the immigration issue?

The difference between kind, well-intentioned NGO employees beholden to their wealthy financial donors and us is that we critique the capitalist system, which exploits undocumented workers, blames them for social problems and creates divisions among workers based on race and legal status. Without socialism — a government of the workers, for the workers, and by the workers — oppression will continue.

Socialism gives me hope. A socialist vision that ends all illegal, murderous sanctions against countries like Cuba and Venezuela; a socialism that ends all US-backed wars, military occupations, coercive trade agreements and the climate changes that drive human displacement; a socialism that declares if capital can move across borders, so can we. 

We can declare socialism as an alternative to Trump’s hateful rhetoric. 

Sparks of Resistance Create a Prairie Fire!

“No one is illegal on stolen land!”  ¡Nadie es ilegal en tierras robadas!

“The real criminal is in office!”  ¡El verdadero criminal está en el cargo!”

 "We are not afraid!" ¡No tenemos miedo!

In dozens of US cities, the militant Resistencia has exploded with these cries in response to President Trump’s campaign of mass deportations. He says he will forcibly send home as many as 15 million undocumented immigrants — 40% Mexicano — from the United States.

Students have walked out of their classrooms by the thousands, demanding an end to the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids, and hundreds of immigrant-owned businesses refused to open their doors on February 3^rd to support a nationwide “Day Without an Immigrant” protest.

In Chicago, New York City, the Texas-Mexico border, Denver, Phoenix, Albuquerque and cities throughout California, this militant resistance movement is pushing back against the neo-fascist Trump/MAGA administration, whose goal is the creation of an authoritarian apartheid country ruled by white Christian nationalists.

Since the deportation campaign began on January 20, an estimated 8,000 people have been arrested and detained. ICE has sent some detainees to the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, others to a military base in Colorado and others to private detention centers — all facilities notorious for their mistreatment of detainees.

A broad international united front has emerged against these human rights abuses that includes the presidents of Colombia and Mexico. Pope Francis issued a statement condemning the deportation campaign: “An authentic rule of law is verified precisely in the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized.” Protestant, Muslim and Jewish faith leaders have all spoken out against Trump’s brutal ethnic cleansing campaign.

Where to send these migrants? Trump is attempting to pressure Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government into accepting potentially millions of deportees. Her response has been careful and thoughtful. She stood up to Trump and defended Mexico’s sovereignty and independence without provoking a harsh economic, political, or possibly even military response. She has ordered all Mexican consulates in the US to provide Mexican immigrants with support and counseling on their rights. She’s also promised that any who are sent to Mexico will be supported and protected.

While Trump is pressuring Mexico and other Latin American governments to cooperate, the resistance is growing. Now more than ever, besides fighting the deportation campaign here in the US, we must broaden and deepen our solidarity with Mexico as it seeks to stand its ground against Yanqui imperialism.

Recent news reports and commentaries, from progressive and mainstream media,
on life and struggles on both sides of the US-Mexico border. Compiled by Jay Watts.

aCira Pascual Marquina, What the New Trump Era Means for Latin America: A Conversation with Breno Altman Venezuelanalysis. The tendency for a stronger anti-imperialist response from Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil could gain momentum, driven even by the internal political survival of their leaders.

Jessica Xantomila, Sindicatos y centrales obreras respaldan a Sheinbaum ante embates de EU La Jornada. Isaías González Cuevas, dirigente de la Confederación Revolucionaria de Obreros y Campesinos (CROC), reiteró que es necesario el diálogo con la Presidenta “para expresarle nuestra solidaridad, pero también nuestras preocupaciones y que no solamente reciba a los patrones. A ellos los han recibido varias veces y a nosotros no”. Le pedimos, insistió, “que nos tome en cuenta”.

Mexico threatens to escalate US gunmakers lawsuit with terror charges The Guardian. Mexico’s president has warned US gunmakers they could face fresh legal action as accomplices of organized crime if Washington designates the country’s cartels as terrorist groups.

Vladimir Ricardo Landero, Subcontratación, dumping laboral que viola el T-MEC. STPS cómplice sdpnoticias. La subcontratación, a pesar de la reforma laboral, encontró acomodo y comparsa de las autoridades laborales, al grado de que todavía representa la cuarta parte de los trabajos formales.

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Alice Herman & Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Uline turned to Mexico to staff warehouses, but paid them a fraction of US workers, sources say Guardian. At company owned by a Trump mega-donor, workers brought from Mexico earned per day about the same as their US counterparts were paid by the hour.

Martín Reyes, Doña María, una de 2 millones de beneficiados de ley de Infonavit Sin Línea. Por instrucciones de la presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum, el Infonavit avanzó con una importante reforma que reduce el monto de descuento por crédito solicitado.

Daniel DePetris, What Would Bombing Mexico Accomplish? Lawfare. A bit of sense from the notoriously awful Brookings Institute: “Adopting reflexive militarism, especially when the chances of success are so low, will do little to fight the flow of illegal drugs but may shatter U.S.-Mexico relations to the detriment of both.”

María Guadalupe Lugo García “Está en juego la existencia de los pueblos indígenas” GACETA UNAM. En sus territorios hay recursos que el proyecto capitalista desea controlar.

Sheinbaum: Mexico may sue Google over ‘Gulf of America’ name change Mexico News Daily. “… Not even President Trump is suggesting that the entire Gulf of Mexico be called the Gulf of America, but rather just their continental shelf. So Google is wrong,” Sheinbaum said.

El PT cree que sumará perfiles de Morena y que mejorará su registro electoral en Veracruz La Política Online. Además, en las 4T todavía hay discusiones sobre el rol que tendrá la familia Yunes luego de que los expanistas hayan brindado el voto de oro para aprobar la reforma judicial en el Senado.

The Mexico Solidarity Project brings together activists from various socialist and left organizations and individuals committed to worker and global justice. We see the 2018 election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president of Mexico as a watershed moment. AMLO and his progressive Morena party aim to end generations of corruption, impoverishment, and subservience to US interests. Our Project supports not just Morena, but all Mexicans struggling for basic rights, and opposes US efforts to undermine organizing and Mexico’s national sovereignty.

Editorial committee: Meizhu Lui, Bruce Hobson, Agatha Hinman, Victoria Hamlin, Courtney Childs, Pedro Gellert.  To give feedback or get involved yourself, please email us!

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