Soup & Substance session focuses on history, present relations with Mexico

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About 95 Central Michigan University students were illegal aliens and could have been deported Thursday afternoon at the Bovee University Center Rotunda.

They didn’t have their birth certificates on them, or anything that could validate their citizenship in America.

“Three or four of you can stay, but the rest of you have to get on a train and be taken back to Mexico,” said emeritus sociology professor Rod Kirk.

Kirk spoke to more than 100 attendees at a Soup and Substance event discussing immigration.

He related his deportation example to a time during the 1930s Great Depression era, when Mexican workers in the United States were treated as scapegoats and held responsible for the shrinking job market.

“About a million estimated were brought back to Mexico and about half were actually citizens of the U.S., but without proper documentation,” Kirk said.

California passed an Apology Act in 2005 for participating in that deportation for people who were citizens.

Kirk took the crowd on a journey from the Spanish colonial rule, to independence from Spain and the complex Mexican-American relationship, among other topics.

“I mentioned the historical ground because for 160 years we have had dealings with Mexicans coming into these territories, as well as with those of Mexican ancestry who were residents in these territories that were annexed,” Kirk said.

Jackson junior Bryant English said the event educated him because he learned history most people don’t really think about or know.

“The fact that many Mexicans are envisionists for the southwestern part of this land and then call them illegal aliens just doesn’t make sense,” he said. “Most of these people are not illegal aliens — they are indigenous to this land. They were kicked out of here without any reason.”

Kirk reiterated his message about border patrol fluctuating over time and relaxing their vigilance, especially when workers are needed.

“We had a legal worker program begin in World War II,” Kirk said. “Workers were needed in the U.S. Bracero program.”

Ulana Klymyshyn, Multicultural Education Center director, said the event was beneficial because many attendees learned something new.

“For may of us, it was information we have never heard before,” Klymyshyn said. “I think the most important message is the contribution of the many Hispanic citizens and people we have living in the United States.”