The issue of Latinos, particularly Mexicans, moving into the United States is not a new one.
But it’s one that isn’t going away, particularly in this election.
Illegal immigration, in particular, is a hot topic and it’s moved up on the radar screens for politicians, particularly those running for election this time around.
State Rep. Jeff Kropf just returned from a week flying his plane in Arizona in support of the Minutemen volunteers who are attempting to support Immigration and Naturalization Service agents’ efforts to keep illegals from crossing the borders.
In our coverage of some of the primary election candidates last week, illegal immigration was on the list of concerns for everyone running for congressional office.
Last week, we saw news reports about the outcry over an attempt to translate the national anthem into Spanish. On Monday, May 1, some Latinos in the U.S. held a boycott in an effort to prove their contributions to society. The idea was that they would stay home from school and from work and demonstrate the void that would exist if they were not here.
Like most societal issues, there are many facets to this one and a lot of people tend to focus on those that prove their points.
Certainly, many illegals who are milking the United States citizenry for benefits and services that some believe they should not receive. But there are reasons why the illegals are here and it’s not just because the weather’s cooler north of the border. There are jobs waiting for them here. Employers want them. Fellow Americans, acting in the same spirit that has led to other injustices in our history, have noted that they can get these people to work for much less than it would cost them to hire a legal worker. So they hire them, and we all pay.
America has its faults, but, by and large, we are a generous and benevolent nation. The spirit that used to drive churches and aid societies to good works has transferred over to our governments, which have adopted rules that seemed like the right thing at the time, but ended up being boondoggles.
The situation is complicated by children who are born here to illegal immigrants, but who have rights of citizenship because this is the land of their birth. Our state pays for children to be taught in Spanish because laws dictate that they must have equal access to education – even though they aren’t supposed to be here.
While many of us feel frustrated by this mess, we caution against overreaction.
That’s what happened recently in Brownsville when a 28-year-old resident erected a sign pointing to his (naturalized) Hispanic neighbor’s home, reading “WE MUST PROTECT OUR BORDERS.”
It was a pathetic display of racism at worst (he denied being racist in news reports), or insensitive unneigborliness at best.
The Sweet Home area is not a particularly integrated community right now, but times are changing and it may not be long before Sweet Home begins seeing more residents who hail from south of the border.
If they’re here legally, great and they should be shown the same neighborly consideration that any other newcomer receives. Many Hispanics are God-fearing, hard-working, salt-of-the-earth people who are an asset to their communities – the same kind of people as those who have formed the core of Sweet Home for generations.
Latinos have just as much right, within the laws, to be here as any of us did when our ancestors arrived from Europe or Asia or wherever. But these immigrants don’t need to be coddled any more than any of our forebears were. Many of our ancestors spoke foreign languages – German, Gaelic, Swedish, French, Chinese, Korean – when they arrived on these shores and they learned the language of the land. They learned the customs. They integrated.
And that’s what our friends from the South need to do when they arrive. We need to accept them as the decent folks they are. They need to do what they must to fit in – legally.