Bill Robinson, a UCSB sociology and Latin American professor, led a debate on immigration held last Wednesday, Sept. 27.

“There have been more immigrants in the past two to three years than any other time in U.S. history” said Robinson, who cited the current global economic crisis as the major cause.

Robinson went on to explain that as data has been presented, many Americans tend to blame immigrants for their sufferings caused by the global crisis. But that isn’t accurate.

“They contribute to the society more than they take away,” he said.

Robinson said that anti-immigration forces like to bring up myths and accusations so that laws like the one in Arizona, known as SB 1070, can pass. That law, warned Robinson, could make it possible to criminalize these immigrants.

Anti-immigrant forces like to blame immigrants for loss of employment, crime, and for taking away their “racial superiority.”

Robinson also said there are two tools that help keep immigrants vulnerable and under tight control, criminalization and mass repression.

Arizona’s law is a perfect example, he said. Between this new law, which will help immigrants be considered criminals, and because of the fact that immigrants are not able to get driver’s licenses or a Social Security number, immigrants are kept vulnerable.

While some consider immigrants undesirable, many transnational corporations and enterprises, which mainly consist of farms and private jails, desire the immigrant workforce because they are vulnerable.

During Robinson’s lecture, vulnerability was defined as cheap labor force without civil rights that can be controlled easily.

Illegal immigrants are a “perfect way for transnational corporations to make profit,” said Robinson.

Robinson mentioned that all over America, private corporations are building prisons to hold illegal immigrants with no questions asked. These prisons are one way to collect mass amounts of profit off of immigrants.

At the debate there was a mother of six children who experienced this situation.

After getting into a small fight with her ex-boyfriend, she was arrested and taken to one of these private prisons.

She had to wait almost an entire year for her father to pay off the bail amount, around $25,000, before she was able to reunite with her family, she said.

With the economy still facing consequences from the downturn, immigration issues continue to be a hot debate topic among California gubernatorial candidates Gerry Brown and Meg Whitman.