People With No Names - The Undocumented #92

This 16" x 20" oil on canvas is another 'portrait' of an immigrant who blends into the landscape.  I am using a 'gridded out' way of approaching the subject matter to think about the disjointed and disconnected way that immigration is being approached in this country.  For one thing, individual states  claiming frustration with the federal government's inaction  have enacted their own particular laws to address a nationwide situation.  Alabama has enacted Draconian laws that have caused undocumented immigrants to withdraw their children from school, flee the state and leave crops rotting in the fields.  The governor of Alabama says that he believes his new law will put his roughly 10% unemployed Alabamans back to work.  Unfortunately the unemployed "documented" U.S. citizens have declined the arduous, backbreaking labor...hence the crops are rotting in the fields,  the price of all produce goes up...food is more expensive for the employed, the unemployed, the documented and undocumented.  Oh and all those little kids are not getting an education...disconnect.

People With No Names - The Undocumented #88

This 8' x12" oil on board is another reflection on whether there is room in our hearts and minds for the foreigner/stranger/immigrant...or like the Governor of Alabama,  we want the toughest laws in the country to "keep them out' and 'root them out of our midst'.  Not only does Gov. Robert Bentley's new law require people to "show papers" to prove they are "legal",  his new law "requires officials in K-12 public schools to determine whether students are illegal immigrants".   In other words, teachers, as well as policemen will be required to act as immigration agents.  Officials claim that there will NOT be racial profiling.  Not that long ago, in the southern U.S.,  free blacks were required to show papers to verify their status as non-slaves.  I guess it wasn't the color of their skin that made people question their 'status'...I guess they just looked like people who should be slaves.  Just like some people look like they should be 'illegal'.