Two points about the low number of comments, Jessica. First, comments are traditionally low on Bilerico, despite the efforts of bloggers to get a conversation going. This is odd, because the view rate on Bilerico is very high. So people are reading us, but apparently don't feel ready to engage us in conversation.

And this ties into the second point. It's pretty easy for someone to toss off a comment calling candidate X a f*ck up. But your posts on Arellano are pushing people to think about a much bigger issue than whether Don Imus getting money for getting fired. You're asking us to look at a pretty nasty pattern of human rights abuse in this country. Undocumented immigrants are the new queers -- the "in" group to despise and take up arms against. We're flooding detention centers with immigrants the government asserts are undocumented. Of course they're receiving inadequate treatment. Coping with a such a large and sudden influx of people into an institution is problematic under the best of times. But we (the "real" Americans) have been given permission and encouragement to view Latino immigrants as sub-human -- threats to our national security and our "way of life." No wonder there are horror stories emerging about the treatment (or lack thereof) of detainees. I suspect many Bilerico readers, like myself, simply feel unequipped to say anything sensible about this subject and it's not a post that calls for one-liners.

That doesn't mean you should stop posting. In fact, it means we *need* you to post on this stuff, because it's forcing us to confront facts we'd rather ignore.

Ellen, thanks for your insightful comments. Part of my hope here is to get more people thinking and talking about these issues, which is a first step that may lead to taking action -- whether that means direct action outside detention centers, demanding more media attention to what's happening inside these facilities, making donations large and small to grassroots immigrant-rights organizers, lobbying politicians, or something else. I realize that Bilerico readers represent a range of politics and identities, and that we're not all likely to take action in the same way. One of my hopes is to use this space to try and provoke a diverse group of LGBTQ-identified people to consider the interconnections between various different struggles for justice--not as an abstract/ideological exercise, but because people are dying unnecessarily and unjustly, and I want us to think collectively about how we might respond to that. Thanks again for your note.

There is definitely a trend on this site that postings about (for example just today) Madonna, Bill Richardson, and Big Brother receive more comments than write-ups on the more real issues (not forgetting all issues are relative of course). And, as one might expect (and as Ellen pointed out above), the serious posts do not warrant responses in the form of witty one-liners. I also think another element may be at play: personally, when I read these more serious pieces I tend to agree with the writer and see little value in reiterating the point of the post in my comment. Although, when you first did post about this particular case I did thank-you for reminding me and other readers of the border dwellers.

So, again, you are highlighting a very important issue facing this nation and other western civilized countries: immigration. There are too many layers at work to encapsulate it within one quick summarizing sentence. In this particular story, the focus is on detainnees and the horrible conditions these no-man's land prisoners find themselves in. The thought of being held by a government on immigration issues is horrifying, because you have no rights and no mobilitiy backward much less forward. As I said before: how can it be so easy for governements to continually pick and choose who gets to have basic human rights?

So, in the end, I've posted a comment agreeing with you (again!). But, we are no closer to solving the issue or picketing out on the frontlines. I dare say, most people - 'real' Americans as it was referred to here - are simply ignorant to the struggles immigrants face. A change can be made, and I think you are right to post about this repeatedly in an effort to start making those waves.

Trans Group Blog: Victoria Arellano