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Immigration Report: The Hispanic View
A few reasons why many Hispanics didn't want the immigration bill. by Fausta Wertz
For the purpose of this article, I’m using the term Hispanic because it is expedient. The term encompasses millions of people from two dozen Latin American countries (and Spain, if you also want to include it), of all races, and with diverse religious, ethnic, political, educational, social and economic backgrounds. Some don’t even speak Spanish. All of them are not called “Hispanic” anymore the moment they leave the USA and return to their places of origin, where they are Nicaraguans, Argentineans, Mexicans, or Uruguayans. Still., the media and the politicians would like to think that there is a “Hispanic vote” out there the way there are Detroit Tiger fans.
Not quite.
Let’s start with Puerto Ricans: all Puerto Ricans are American citizens, except for those rare ones who have expressly renounced their citizenship. Then there are the Cubans, who are granted asylum if they manage to land on American soil. Everybody else who was born in a foreign country and moves to the USA has to go through numerous immigration and documentation procedures if they want to live in this country legally.
The paperwork involved is not trivial: it takes years to get a visa and become a resident. You can get an idea of the labyrinthine process by browsing at the US Immigration Support website.
Becoming a legal resident of the US, and later a citizen, is a laborious process. However, since you are law-abiding person who wants to live in a country based on the rule of law, you go and apply, and talk to a lawyer, and study hard, and learn English, and get interviewed, and persevere until you are a legal resident. And then persevere some more until you are a citizen. Later yet, if you want your parents to join you in your new country, you start all over again.
Imagine your dismay when reading the immigration bill that just went down in the Senate, and realize that it would have provided a special path for illegal aliens in which the immigrants that are already in the country legally do not participate. That those arriving as temporary workers would be precluded from applying for permanent residence is a moot point, since the bill would grant the illegals here immediate probationary legal status.
The bill also would have allowed those who are now illegal immigrants to collect Social Security even if they have committed identity theft or fraud.
To add insult to injury, there was a provision (later removed) by which the illegals that had not paid federal taxes wouldn’t have had to pay back taxes. You had been paying your them all the while, waiting for your citizenship to come through. You felt like a chump.
And rightly so.
We all know that the temporary guest worker program that the bill proposed was a cheap labor program. Obviously that was the point. What wasn’t so obvious is that if you were one of the less-educated immigrants -for example if you didn’t graduate in high school-, your wages would be decreasing. The bill had no wage floor provisions: there was no requirement that the employers pay prevailing wages. And since nearly one third of all immigrant households has a member with no high school degree, low skilled workers now legally employed in the US would be most directly affected by the annual influx of 200,000 temporary workers.
The influx of cheap labor would have had a depressing effect on wages across the board, not just on unskilled labor. The costs and barriers entrepreneurs face in sponsoring labor from other countries would not have decreased since the bill would have imposed even more regulations. Many Hispanics entrepreneurs, like myself, were worried that such a large influx of unskilled labor might mean that domestic training in some skilled trades, such as construction, might decrease substantially. It would affect America’s competitiveness.
Additionally, as a law-abiding American citizen or resident, you were concerned about national security. The bill gave the government only 24 hours for background checks. It didn’t prevent those who had committed terrorist acts or aided terrorists from asserting “good moral character;” there was no time frame for appeals. A terrorist, a gang member, or a criminal could have tied up the courts with appeals and Z-visa applications while remaining in the country. All the while, the bill’s provisions on border security are already in the books.
In short, the immigration bill was a slap in the face of all immigrants (Hispanic or otherwise) who are here legally, and for those millions of people all over the world who have applied to come to the USA and who are in line waiting.
Also, even the undocumented workers who have been living and working and contributing to the country for decades deserve better than this mess of a bill that politicians tried to railroad through Congress with clay pigeons and behind-the-doors dealings. These workers deserve a humane normalization process through which they can become Americans. All Americans have earned the right to laws that are subject to proper legislative process in both chambers, real debate, and honest amendments.
That’s what a representative democracy is all about.
Fausta Wertz writes on New Jersey, taxation, current events, and the French and Spanish-language media at Fausta’s Blog.
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18 Comments
1. walter santi:Wanting to change immigrations rule from illegal to legal does not bode well. Americans by large abide by our rules already in place and respect them.
Do we change the rules midgame in a baseball game? Of course not. and so forth.
And we have to regulate population from wherever it come. A country like a church or theater can only hold so many people inside and function.
Jun 29, 2007 - 6:12 am 2. gcblues:yes we need to regulate entrants. however, that is no excuse for the embarressment that has become the usa’s politically motivated immigration laws. i invite people to visit US embassys abroad and see how badly people are treated by your usa reps abroad. i know many of you applaud the insulting treatment we mete out each day abroad. indeed you would like to make more indecent.
why not let anyone in to work that has a job waiting and
a clean police and interpol report? that way demnand is met and pressure on the border relieved without a new berlin wall.
but nooooooooooooooooo they need to be able to speak english, endure indignities, pay mucho, jump through nativist hoops and wait for years while usa trailer crackers disguised as conservatives insult them and their culture. yeah, you anti immigrant border freaks just want decency and the rule of law. que pathetica!
Jun 29, 2007 - 7:15 am 3. Irish Gal:Blah blah blah. Bad bad America, yet there is a one way traffic jam and it isn’t going out of this country. Why don’t you bleeding hearts get on the ass of the Mexican government to allow their people to create a society they might like to stay in. No, that would be to hard. It’s so much easier to blame America. You make my ass tired.
Jun 29, 2007 - 9:52 am 4. El_Cid:First I am surprised that the Legalized latinos, as well as Puerto Rican who are citizens (and could have been a state by now) were not more vocal and united in their opposition. Maybe they were and its not being reported. I am happy this bill went down in flames. It would have been a disaster to automatically confer affirmative action protection and therefore preference to 20 million illegals. Think about the affect on the already legalized immigrants. and Puerto Rican, and Cubans who apply for jobs in police, firmans, etc. The la Raza talks the line we are all one but thats B.S. do an internet search “la raza” audio and see and hear for yourself. We other hispanics, as well as Whites and Blacks are nowhere in their picture other than to be steamrolled over. And if your are a well educated Puerto rican applying for a High Tech job..Take a number and get in line because Microsoft and oracle want to hire like from india or outsource to india. In California lawyers were giving companies training how to avoid hiring American programmers !!( I swear to God !)(do your homework and search ( unemployed programmers fightt immigration bill)Wake up “enyangotados” and legalized immigrants you were being Took and Had. Thank God some of us did see that and fought this Bill tooth and nail.
Jun 29, 2007 - 10:11 am 5. will:Now, Shut the border, stop the gun running, and drug running, and maybe all of us will still have a chance at the American Dream!
Hey gcblues [courtesy please -ed.]… most Americans are not anti-immigrant. We think people should abide by our laws and illegal aliens do not. Plain and simple.
Jun 29, 2007 - 11:29 am 6. Pure Nicaraguan:Born in Nicaragua. Came to the US in 1986. Became a LEGAL citizen in 1994. La Raza and all the other fascist-socialist Hispanic organizations out there do not speak for me or anyone else that I know that is a law abiding Hispanic in this country. I have an extensive family (all legal…it took a long time and A LOT of money) and we completely disagreed with this bill. El Presidente is a fool for trying to push this through.
Jun 29, 2007 - 1:34 pm 7. FlipSide:gcblues…try to immigrate to say Switzerland and get a job there. See if its any easier for you.
Jun 29, 2007 - 1:35 pm 8. ex-democrat:well said, pure nicaraguan. my wife and i are both LEGAL immigrants (each from different parts of the world) and were incensed by this bill and in particular use of the bigotry slur to shove it down our throats. Moreover, we continue to be incensed every time someone uses the word “immigrant” when what they really mean is “illegal immigrant.”
Jun 29, 2007 - 3:02 pm 9. gcblues:hola pura nica.
i own a home in rivas. where in nicaragua are you from?
others, respect for the law is different from following every stupid law. i break lots of laws that do not matter or matter much. so do you. so what.
illegals come here because they are needed and because immigration laws are so terrible they are impossible. want to eliminate illegals, make legal reasonable.
deport all the illegals, you’ll be eating only imported food within a year. or maybe you want to work in a chicken plant? and do not give me the cr*p about raising wages. you raise the wage you just eliminate the job.
nothing conservative or smart about you border thumper people
Jun 29, 2007 - 5:57 pm 10. usasteve:“These workers deserve a humane normalization process through which they can become Americans,”
writes the author of this silly piece.
There is such a process.It is called going home, and applying for citizenship,while learning Englsh and American history and civics.That’s it.
Deportation and employer sanctions work. See Eisenhower plan called “Operation Wetback”.
Jun 29, 2007 - 9:52 pm 11. armilnov:We, LEGAL Immigrants pay taxes just like US citizens. We obey laws. We pledge to protect Constitution when we become citizens. Allowing law-violating illegals to cut in line before us is insulting – finally, someone say that, THANK YOU!
We, LEGAL Immigrants do not want others to steal our tax money and our security by being in here ILLEGALLY!!!
NOTE: maybe it is difficult to legally immigrate to USA, but believe me, it is much easier to immigrate to USA than to other countries – such as Germany, France, or Japan. Those have draconian laws on immigration!
Jul 1, 2007 - 10:26 am 12. Bapakgila:As a natural American who went through the process of bringing in his wife legally, it is apparent to me that “gcblues” actually never visited either an American embassy or an Immigration center. Try visiting the Immigration center in San Diego for yourself and you will find that if you are anything but Mexican, you will be treated like a second class citizen. The security guards are Mexican, the receptionist are Mexican and the person you have to go through at the window is Mexican. In fact, English is a second language at our Immigration centers and you are looked down upon if you speak English. Try waiting in those 2 hour lines and you won’t hear English spoken once. On two separate occasions I was talked down to by a 18 year old Mexican girl who simply didn’t like the way I looked. No “gcblues” most people do respect the laws and don’t break them like you and the 20 million other illegal aliens obviously do. When did American became the ‘end all’ to solve every other countries problems?
Jul 1, 2007 - 12:23 pm 13. gcblues:bap
i have homes in rivas, nicaragua, and coco, costa rica, i think i got a handle on frontiers and international travel having driven there as well.
you are welcome to dissagree. but you are not the first to rightously hide behind horrible law while calling others stupid. lots of pukes and tyrants have used the “its the law” thingy to hide behind. its not proof of anything. indeed in my experience there is an exact inverse relationship between the sanity of frontier law and breaking of said laws.
all those illegals in every country speak to unfilled need. no mas, no menos. its the law alright, its the law that is stupid. if you have a clean interpol report and a job waiting why should you have to jump through white bs nativist hoops to enter and earn a living? like you wanna work in a chicken plant.
Jul 2, 2007 - 1:38 pm 14. Bostonian:“f you have a clean interpol report and a job waiting why should you have to jump through white bs nativist hoops to enter and earn a living? ”
Why? Because the citizens of this country wrote a law, that’s why.
You are saying we don’t have a right to control the borders of our own country.
Jul 2, 2007 - 2:19 pm 15. duchess:Let me put, in very simple terms, why most of us – yes, even a Puerto Rican-born American citizen like me – oppose illegal immigration.
Say, you have a nice, well-kept house with nice front and back yards, which you have spent time and efforts to make it what it is. One day, some ruffian you have never met before decides that he wants your house. So, he moves into your back yard. Pitches a tent there. Attempts to eat your food by stealing it from your kitchen. Attempts to take a bath in your swimming pool. Urinates and takes dumps on your well-kept flowers and everywhere else in your yard and terrace, thus leaving a horrible smell for those who live in your house. Then, when you confront the man and tell him that this is not his house, but yours, the ruffian accuses you of being “unfair” and a “bigot”, that he has every right to steal from your home and make it look like a landfill because he says so and has more rights than you to your own home (the home that you built and maintained for yourself and your family), and that, if you don’t fulfill his demands, he will seize your house and force you and your family to live with his disgusting presence as an eyesore to everything you built.
You tell the police about it, and what’s the response? “Sorry, man, we can’t take the man out of your property, even if you have a case, because we’re afraid to lose our heads for doing the right thing.”
That’s when you know that no one will help you on this one. You have to handle it yourself.
So, what do you do? You take measures to defend yourself, your family, and your property. You set up an alarm system inside the house, to the protests of the invader. You prepare your family with some measure of self-defense, in case he decides to make a run for them and your house. You buy a gun. You fill it. And you tell the ruffian, while pointing your gun at him, that he’d better leave YOUR property RIGHT NOW, or you will empty those bullets into his body.
The ruffian screams “You’re threatening me! What have I done to you?”
Plenty. Plenty enough to act.
So, que te quede claro. What’s happening here is that America is saying, loud and clear, to all of those ruffians and criminals who think they have a right to everything we have built and cared for and loot it into ruin, “YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO INVADE MY HOME!”
He dicho.
Jul 2, 2007 - 9:45 pm 16. gcblues:well said, both of you.
the puerto rican thinks the people that foul his home are illegals, that it is illegals that cause horrible problems for the usa, they cause the crime, use the services and impoverish us all. que pathetica.
the bostonian says because any law we pass is a law we have a right to pass no matter how ignorant, uneeded, nativist, racist and contrary to human liberty and decency it might be. so tough beans and the heck with ya all. of course the rule of law has nothing to do with law and order. but that is beyond the ability of trailer dwellers to fathom.
thank you both for making my points.
Jul 2, 2007 - 11:16 pm 17. mishu:So, he moves into your back yard. Pitches a tent there. Attempts to eat your food by stealing it from your kitchen. Attempts to take a bath in your swimming pool. Urinates and takes dumps on your well-kept flowers and everywhere else in your yard and terrace, thus leaving a horrible smell for those who live in your house.
With that characterization of illegal immigrants, no wonder you’re mistaken for a bigot. Can you say, “stereotype”?
Jul 3, 2007 - 9:45 am 18. mishu:the bostonian says because any law we pass is a law we have a right to pass no matter how ignorant, uneeded, nativist, racist and contrary to human liberty and decency it might be.
Plus it’s a law that the invisible hand smacks around with the greatest of ease. I’d rather try to drive the lane against Patrick Ewing than against the invisible hand.
Jul 3, 2007 - 9:48 am