*Estevan T. Flores, A Call to Action: An Analysis of Our Struggles and Alternatives to Carter's Immigration Program, Pamphlet, October 28-30, 1977.

“A Call to Action, An Analysis of Our Struggles and Alternatives to Carter’s Immigration Program” is a pamphlet written by Estevan T. Flores. It’s purpose is to educate the Chicano community of the governments motive behind President Carter’s new Immigration Policy, and to explain how Chicanos can resist these new policies.

The Crisis for Business:

The author views the new Immigration Program as a direct response by the American government, on behalf of American businesses, to the success of the Chicano movement. This view is vividly illustrated by an article from the L.A. Times which appears in the pamphlet. This article contains part of an interview with Mr. Marshal, Secretary of Labor. Marshal describes the fears business has of the Mexican underclass. The fear is while at the time the underclass is being exploited, there will soon come an uprising. Even though Mexican immigrants are unprotected and too fearful of deportation to revolt now, there is a fear that the children of these immigrants will begin to demand more. He likens the situation to the migration of blacks from the South into northern factories. At first the workers were complacent because the jobs were an improvement from the wages they received in the South. However, the next generation of these workers revolted because they didn’t experience the poverty in the South first hand. Marshal worried that the children of Mexican immigrants would also revolt because they wouldn’t have any experience of the low wage jobs in Mexico their parents once had.

Business worst fears had already started to come true. Some of the important gains that the Chicano movement produced are: an increase in wages for farm workers, as well as increased government spending on welfare, health clinics, legal aid, recreation, and scholarships for Mexican Americans. These gains materialized even though business and the government strongly resisted. It is important to remember that Chicanos were able to achieve these gains by uniting the division between local and immigrant labor. “It has been the growing strength of our weakest sector- undocumented workers which has undermined the usefulness of immigration to businesses.”

The Response by the Government:

Our government first responded with inflation of food and energy prices, as well as austerity imposed by a tight fiscal policy. When this didn’t do the trick, Carter came up with the new approach of divide and conquer. He attempted to split the community into three groups: workers granted amnesty, workers granted temporary amnesty, and workers who were to be deported. To reinforce these divisions, documented workers were promised immunity as long as they didn’t intervene in the execution of these new laws. INS agents increased the number and intensity of raids in search of illegal aliens. Carter’s plan also proposed mandatory worker identification cards.

Proposed Reaction for the Mexican Community:

One of the most important responses that the pamphlet proposes is the expansion of the informal network that exists between the borders. Flores wants this network to assist the undocumented workers in their migrations back and forth across the border. He also wants this network to fight for workers on both sides of the border. If workers in Mexico are struggling, workers in America should help them in their battle with actions on the U.S. side of the border. The example given is if workers in Mexico are fighting with Del Monte, American workers can attack U.S. subsidiaries of Del Monte.

In response to the increased INS activity, there is a call for both the physical resistance of the raids as well as a disruption of INS operations similar to the tactics used to disrupt the draft of Vietnam. He also calls for the burning of worker’s identification cards if they are issued. One of the themes that is stressed is the movement must start from the bottom up. Otherwise business will be able to pit the poorer unwaged workers against the better paid workers.

The pamphlet ends by recognizing that the same immigration crisis exists in Europe as well. The immigrants of Europe have gained power and the response by business has been the same. Flores believes it is important to recognize the immigration crisis as an international crisis because the success of immigrants in one part of the world will help the cause of immigrants in other parts.

Summary by Aaron Zaidel