Vida Newspaper, Volume 3, Issue 3 - March 1976

Deportation of American Citizens By Luisa Sevilla June 1, 1975, Francesca Sierra received a telephone call from her two sons. The Sierra family lives in Venice, her sons were callig her from Mexicali. Without notice Lo their family, thirteen year-old Roberto and fifteen- year-old Salvador had been de¬ ported by the immigration au¬ thorities despite the fact that they both are U.S. citizens and speak fluent English. The last time Mrs. Sierra had seen her sons was that after¬ noon. They had been working with their father and decided to take a break and go down to the Santa Monica Pier. While walking down the street in San¬ ta Monica, they were approached by immigration authorities. When Salvador told the officers that they were U.S. citizens, they res¬ ponded by laughing and taunting them by saying “Look at the ga- bachos.” They were then put in¬ to a van and taken to Mexico. In the van was a handcuffed pregnant woman. Salvador said “What are you guys handcuffing her for? Look at the way she is.” They responded with “Yeah, you’re right,” and took the hand¬ cuffs off of her and put them on Salvador. 'Phis is an example of the treatment they received. After Mrs. Sierra received the call from her sons, she contacted the immigration authorities to find out what happened. “The im¬ migration authorities told me that they didn’t have any record of taking my sons. They said that they didn’t have any immigra¬ tion officers around Venice or Santa Monica. That is like say¬ ing there are no police in Venice or Santa Monica. They are every¬ where.” The Sierras borrowed a car and some money for gas. (Continued on Page 3) V IDA LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT Non-Profit Organization US. Postage Los Angeles, Calif. Permit No. 27415 OF M.E.Ch. A. CHIC AN О STUD IE'S MARCH, 1976 VOL. Ill — NO 3 Forced Sterilization By Anna Cordova Forced sterilization has been going on for years. There are lots of people that don’t know about it and a Tot of people that don’t believe that its happening. What is Forced Sterilization? Forced Sterilization is the steri¬ lization of poor minority or third world women. Forced steliriza- tion is a means by which a government controls a popula¬ tion. In the U.S., during World War П, thousands of Japanese- Ameri¬ cans were rounded up and put into concentration camps. In 1945, a bill was introduced in Con¬ gress to sterilize all Japanese- American women. That bill was defeated by one vote. Today the government, through the Department of Health, Edu¬ cation and Welfare (HEW) is waging a massive sterilization campaign. Its targets are poor women — particularly Third World women. In Los Angeles at L.A. County General Hospital and USC County Medical Center, where poor peo¬ ple must go for medical care, there has been many document ed cases of women who ha^ been forcibly sterilized. The object of repression is t Mexicano, Native America Black, Asian, and poor white. It has been found that a gre majority of women who had be forcibly sterilized were womr without immigration papers. Fc these women “lighting bad means exposure and deportatio These are some of the way in which women were sterilize Spanish-speaking women wer tricked into signing English cor sent forms. They believed the, were consenting to caesarea sections. Women were pressure into agreeing to sterilization opc rations while in labor or actual! on the delivery table. They “consented” to steriliz? tion operations without under standing that this meant the they would never be able to have babies again. Some of the wo- General Hospital where many forced sterilizations are performed men left the hospital unaware ,|шц — — ^ — ■ — L-^ . . . . . . * of the fact that they had been lized three times the percentage! zations are performed monthly, sterilized. of married white women, accord-! In Montgomery, Alabama, two 20% of all Black married wo- mg to the national Fertility Stu- young black girls, Mary Alice men in the U.S. have been steri- dy. In New York 1000 sterili- (Continued onPage 6)