Puerto Rico: A Trampoline for Illegal Immigrants

In 1898, after the Treaty of Paris was signed and the Spanish-American war ended, Spain ceded its possessions from The Caribbean and the Pacific to the American government. As a result, the island of Puerto Rico passed on to become a US territory and a possession of the US government. In April of 1900, the US congress approved the Foraker Act, where it established a civil government and put an end to the military government. Afterward, all of the laws made by the Federal government where immediately put in to practice, such as the Law of Cabotage, which still controls all of Puerto Rico’s ports. Consequently, the Federal government controls every movement of the people and all merchandise that goes between PR and the US. With that said, PR’s government lost control over the laws that rule their society economically, such as their immigration laws. As a result, the government has no control over their immigration status and can’t decide who can or cannot come into the island, since their rights have become greatly limited. Finally, the percentage of illegal immigrants moving to the island with hopes of finding better jobs or using the island as a gateway to transport illegal drugs into the US, has increased over the past 100 years. This is where the issue lies.

Once Puerto Rico became a US territory, every native citizen was given American citizenship, which allowed Puerto Ricans to travel, work and even live in the United States without having to go through an immigration process. Also, the island began a process of “Americanization” that fructified their economy enormously. This is why more people from rural countries, such as The Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba and even The Republic of China became interested in moving to Puerto Rico with hopes of finding a better life. With that said, there are two main consequences of immigration. The first being that once the immigrant finally escapes his or her country and arrives at PR, this person is immediately determined to be an undocumented immigrant. Since the majority of these people are so desperate for jobs and money, they end up working minimum wage jobs and in deplorable conditions. Secondly, the transportation of illegal drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin has affected the US directly since these drugs are being shipped from The Caribbean and other countries from Latin America to US territories.

At the moment, the laws of cabotage vigorously continue, preventing Puerto Rico’s government from enforcing control over illegal immigration on the island. Unfortunately, this function falls in the hands of the federal agencies such as the US Customs and Immigration Services, as well as the new agency that was created in 2003 called the US immigration and Custom Enforcement (I.C.E). This agency is the principle investigative arm of the US Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S) investigating and interior enforcements elements of the US Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Moreover, Puerto Rico has seen an unprecedented increase in drug related crimes between drug traffickers to the point where hundreds of people are murdered every month in an island of only 3.8 million inhabitants (a murder rate near 26 per 100,000). Without doubt, much of this is due to the ease of acquiring US dollars by the drug cartels in exchange for transshipment of illegal drugs and weapons. This is why, each day more news of crimes involving the use of high power weapons such as AR-15 rifles are heard. Since possession and use of weapons in PR is highly controlled and many of these are not imported legally to the island, but imported from the US by use of commercial couriers.

In order to solve the issue with immigration, or at least decrease the percentages of undocumented people in PR, two things must be done: the federal agencies that work with immigration laws in Puerto Rico should enforce stricter laws and penalties on immigrants that escape their countries illegally, or the U.S government should give Puerto Rico the freedom to choose their own immigration laws, since in reality, they are the ones being affected by this continuous burden.

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Slavery results from economic disparities

The trafficker, the slave owning entrepreneur, and the unfortunate bonded individual all have one thing in common, and that is the need for economic success. Exploiting individuals to achieve the minimum cost of labor satisfies the demand for maximized profits. As long as there are individuals who are willing to exploit humans in efforts of attaining the maximum profit, slavery is said to continue. 

Those who fall into slavery often come from vulnerable situations. Extreme poverty contributes significantly to global slave trade. Desperate families will sell their children with the allusion that the child will experience a better life, or simply the family cannot afford another mouth to feed. Traffickers prey on desperate situations including natural disasters. After the devastating earthquake in Haiti last January, despite promises from Haitian leaders to protect orphaned children, the number of smuggled individuals (especially children) skyrocketed. This same behavior was witnessed in south Asia after the tsunami in 2003. After both disasters children were devalued to the point that smugglers offered to trade children for sex, cooking, and laundry. 

Traffickers have very little to nothing invested in their slaves, resulting in up to 500% profit. This economic venture proves too tempting to those whom have traded their morals for potential economic growth. A simple way to combat this issue and to minimize the exploiters' profits is, as a consumer to demand fair traded items. The combination of excessive materialism and the desire to spend the least amount of currency possible fuels the human trafficking industry. When we as consumers decide to elevate the fad of buying fair trade and organic items into a movement and demand true fairly traded items, the profits reaped by slave owners will diminish significantly.

 

Raising awareness along with passing and enforcing legislation can also minimize the number of those who reside in bondage. Organizations such as the Polaris Project and Free the Slaves are successful in both raising awareness and inspiring legislation. While slavery is illegal in every country, indifferent public officials seldom seek to assist those who are enslaved. We as responsible citizens of society have the moral obligation to demand people of power to take actions against exploiters and assist those who have been taken advantage of.

Is Tradition an Excuse to Have Child Slaves?

Every day Haitian children are sent away in hopes of a better life. This has become a Haitian tradition. When Haitians don’t have enough money to support their children they sent them to live with another family or many times complete strangers. These foster parents are supposed to take care of these children as if they were their own. They’re supposed to send them to school, buy them clothe, and guide the to a better future. However, this hardly ever happens. These children are taken in as servants, forced to work without pay, secluded from other children in the household and not often sent to school. Before the earthquake out of Haiti’s eight million people 300,000 children were restaveks. After the earthquake one million Haitians were left homeless so the number of restaveks also raised a lot. The big question with all this is. Is this Haitian tradition or child slavery? If the parents give away the children willingly is it still slavery? Jean-Robert Cadet, a former restavek, now runs an organization against restaveks. Cadet tells us that the only reason why restaveks are still around today is because it is socially accepted as tradition. Cadet says only a small percent of restaveks are treated well and sent to school, this makes Haitian parents prefer sending of their kids and hoping they end up with a good family than watching them die while living with them. So is this so called “ tradition” slavery?

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