Abducted from his family and community and sitting in a for-profit prison in Ohio, Martín Esquivel Hernandez is one in a long list of immigrants removed forcibly and without warning from his livelihood. Not only he does face deportation, a cruel twist of fate after he and his daughters marched proudly in an anti-deportation march the day before his abduction by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. He is also facing outlandish federal charges that aim to criminalize Martín for trying to be with his family and community. But these charges, brought by U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton, are being met with opposition from the Pittsburgh and beyond demanding Martín’s return to his family with charges dropped and the end to anti-immigrant targeting enforced by ICE.
Martin’s story
Martín Esquivel Hernandez, a 35-year old construction worker and father of three, crossed the U.S-Mexican border without authorization in 2012 to flee his gang-ridden neighborhood in Mexico City and be with his wife, Alma, and their three small children in California. The family then made their way to Pittsburgh to join Martín’s brother and mother, thinking it would be a great place to work and raise their young family.
In the short time that they’ve lived in Pittsburgh, Martín and Alma have become indispensable activists in Pittsburgh’s growing Latino community. They are active in two local churches – St. Catherine of Siena Church in Beechview and East Liberty Presbyterian Church – and in their two daughters’ school, Arsenal Elementary School in Lawrenceville. Martín is an active member of the Latino Parents Council, a project of the Latino Family Center. He is also involved with the A+ Schools Community Alliance for Public Education, and is a facilitator, along with Alma, for the recently completed Latino Needs Assessment Project, a project of the Latino Family Center and the Casa San José, to examine the challenges confronting Latino families in Allegheny County.
But now Martín sits behind bars away from his family and community. The ostensible rationale for his arrest may be one of two counts in the last four months of driving without a license. Martín possesses a driver’s license from Mexico, but under current laws regarding individuals without documentation, Martín is not able to get a Pennsylvania license. Martín paid his fines for these traffic violations and was marked as “undocumented.” It is unclear if the police departments then made the referral to ICE What is clear is that Hickton has taken a harsh approach to this case. He aims to prosecute Martín, not for being undocumented, which in of itself is not a crime, but for “reentry after deportation,” citing the multiple times Martín has crossed the boarder to be with his family and community. Most cases of “reentry after deportation” do not go to federal court, but after a rise in federally prosecuted deportation cases hitting a fever pitch in 2012, Hickton looks to continue the trend.
The real criminals
It should not be a crime to cross a border in search of work to support yourself and your family.
It is the multi-national corporations, the Wall Street banks and the U.S. politicians in their service who are the real criminals. They are destroying the livelihood of millions of families all around the world by enforcing their neoliberal policies of exploitation and plunder through “Free Trade” agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement.
What has NAFTA meant for people like Martín? Major banks and multi-national corporations can exploit working class people with complete impunity and barely any taxation on either side of the U.S./Mexico border. Going into effect in 1994 under the Clinton administration, and gaining further momentum in 2008 under Obama, NAFTA effectively stole Mexico’s ability to select its own, domestically produced agricultural and other products over those made in the U.S. This sets up an unfair competition, as U.S. corporations are able to sell their products in Mexico below the actual cost of production, due to federal subsidies. Under this policy, rural Mexican farmers are put into competition with U.S. agribusiness, causing massive spikes in unemployment, poverty, and ultimately, immigration, as these farmers flee to escape the misery created by NAFTA.
Prior to 1994, it was estimated that around 2 million Mexican immigrants had crossed “illegally” into the U.S. Some 20 years later, that number is estimated to be anywhere between 12 to 14 million Mexican immigrants. Among these people are people like Martín, who sought fair wages and better opportunities after his home of Mexico was ravaged by these free trade agreements that are anything but “free.” The conditions nurtured by NAFTA, combined with political turmoil within Mexico, have given rise to the
violent narco-trafficking. This industry, supplying an enormous market north of the border, has further displaced millions. And when these displaced individuals seek asylum in the country that nurtured the violence, they are arrested, detained, imprisoned, and treated as second class citizens.
Furthering the oppression faced by immigrants seeking refuge, blatant bigots like Donald Trump, or Wall Street/NAFTA champions like Hillary Clinton, fan the flames of fire and shift the blame away from the corporations and banks directly responsible for this misery. Trump has inspired a new wave of anti-immigrant sentiments, centering the blame of the failure of the economy on immigrants and “foreigners.” What Trump, and the newly economically-insecure white middle class which supports him, fail to acknowledge is that the free trade policies that they so dearly cling to are responsible not only for the destruction of Mexico and the rise of immigration, but also the plunder of U.S. and its economy. The rich and the bank-backed politicians, Trump and Hilary alike, will stop at nothing to continue the trend of the world’s resources being secured for only a tiny minority of the super wealthy all the while damning the rest to poverty and violence.
Martín, and many other refugees seeking brighter futures for themselves and families, wouldn’t need to seek asylum in the first place if the vulture-like banks and their free trade policies would stop pillaging Mexico’s economy and its resources for the benefit of Wall Street. Martín, and all other immigrants, are not pawns in the game of big banks and prisons. All progressive and revolutionary people should demand that Hickton drop the charges and release Martín Esquivel Hernandez so he can return to his family and community at once.
Justice for Martín! Full rights for all immigrants! End ICE’s reign of terror!
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