Immigration: Part IV-Final Thought

The International Monetary Fund estimated that Mexicans in the United States sent $20 billion to Mexico last year, the country’s second largest source of foreign income after oil. The majority of people are coming to the U.S. for money! People do not want to leave their homes and families, but when their governments do not support worker rights for fair pay and fair treatment, there are very few options. Those that do come here for American values and ideals, can get caught up in a decade long process.

Entering a country illegally just because you come from an unjust nation does not give you a right to break the law. “If someone wants to be a citizen of this country then let them enter our borders with our permission. Those without permission are illegal and should be arrested and imprisoned.” (Paul Geiss) There are approximately 590,000 immigrants in the country who have blatantly ignored orders to leave. (New York Times, 4/21/06) “Imagine turning more than 11 million people into criminals, and anyone who helps them,” said Angela Sanbrano, executive director of Central American Resource Center of Los Angeles. “To be treated as criminals after all the work they did isn’t fair,” commented Fabricio Fierros, an American-born son of mushroom-pickers who came to the United States illegally from Mexico. Breaking the law does make you a criminal! America does not owe illegal aliens any rights. If you truly want to be an American, then abiding by American laws is the first necessary step.

Unfortunately, I firmly believe the American government has made the legal line seem like an endless gantlet of bureaucracy. To think we have non-US citizens fighting and dying for this country every day. Those people truly love America and yet we do not even bother to put in an express lane for them.

Currently, a standard path to citizenship can seem endless. On top of that, naturalized citizens then wait again to get their family members to become naturalized. So many look to anchor babies in order to solidify an American citizenship. In California and Arizona, greater than one in five babies are born to undocumented mothers and nationwide, about one in ten babies are born to illegal alien parents. At birth these babies automatically become legitimate U.S. citizens and have full rights and protection under our laws. Plus, they have the ability to sponsor their parents as citizens once they reach age 21. (Fusion Magazine, Jan/Feb 2006) “…Any baby born in this country to any illegal alien, should not be an American citizen. So many of these criminals come to the U.S. just to have babies (which of course the American taxpayer pays for) just so it will make their babies Americans and harder for us to deport their parents.” (Paul Geiss) Officials in Los Angeles…estimate that these babies account for at least thirty percent of all Aid to Families with Dependent Children cases. (Fusion Magazine, Jan/Feb 2006) The largest group of illegal immigrant patients is pregnant women... under a 2002 amendment to federal regulations, the births are covered by federal taxes through Medicaid because their children automatically become American citizens. (New York Times, 7/18/06) Guest worker provisions suggested by the Bush Administration would expand the number of foreign-born citizens by tens of thousands.

For public hospitals and maternity wards in border states, "their care has swelled costs for struggling hospitals and increased the health care bills that fall to states and counties." (New York Times, 7/18/06) Why it must be hard to deny someone care, there are far too many American citizens, that work hard, pay taxes and still do not get the coverage and help they need and deserve because monies alloted for them, have been used on illegals. "A study ordered by commissioners in Harris County, which includes Houston, found that about one-fifth of the patients in its health system last year were immigrants without documents, most of them from Mexico. Their numbers had increased 44 percent in three years, the study found, and their care had cost the county $97.3 million, about 14 percent of the health system’s total operating costs." (New York Times, 7/18/06)

A side argument to this might be that health care costs too much to begin with, health care professionals deserve to make higher salaries. These people (for the most part...I know there are exceptions), work hard, study hard and save lives. I do not believe we should lower the cost of what health care professionals get paid but rather look to companies to pay for it. Until our government puts their foot down and insists that companies pay accordingly for their employees health insurance, these people then have to look to the state and/or federal government for help. And too many get turned away.

I sympathize with the plight befallen on those that live under corrupt and dehumanizing governments but all too often we ignore our responsibilty and coware from the horrors we see. I implore people to become involved in their government or at least, their community. For example, Mexican citizens need to start standing up for their rights IN MEXICO. If people put as much effort into the recent protests and demonstrations in America for 'Illegal Immigrant Rights' as they did in Mexico, then the current Presidential election would not be on the fence but would have outright elected Anders Manual Lopez Obrador…a Presidential candidate fighting for worker’s rights and the poor. You must be the change you wish to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandi

Immigration: Part III-The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there,
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence;
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost


On May 25th, the Senate approved a wide-ranging overhaul of immigration laws to bolster security at the Mexican border and to grant many illegal immigrants a path toward citizenship. With approximately 11 million illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States, action has been long overdue, but is this the best path?

On the legalization part of the bill provisions divides the currently illegal immigrant populace into three groups:

1. Illegal immigrants here for more than five years could gain their citizenship after working for six years, learning English and paying a penalty and back taxes? How much in penalties? Most immigrants’ work for less than minimum wage (minimum wage being a whole other rant), and once on a “path”, you MUST learn English. How? Are we setting up a free program to teach the English to the different languages that are spoken in America? Or do we leave that to the immigrant to figure out?
2. Illegal immigrants here from two to five years would have to return to an entry point and apply for a guest-worker program. And what if they don’t? And if they do, how much will it cost? How long will it take?
3. Workers here less than two years would have to return to their countries of origin. And how are you planning to enforce this? How many taxpayers’ dollars will this cost? Even President Bush said in his address to the nation that the Catch and Release program who initiated because the government did not have enough space for detainees. Bush asserted that this program will end and asking Funding from Congress. (No! You are asking the taxpayers to pay and not just pocket change but $1.9 BILLION. Why not tax the businesses that have been found to hire illegal immigrants? These are not just small construction businesses, but multi-million dollar corporations like Target and Walmart. The new plan will punish employers who hire illegal immigrants with a fine up to $20,000 and three years in prison after an electronic verification system is established. Ummm…who from Walmart is going to prison? The door greeter?

Security! The bill provisions also authorize enhanced border security measures, including the addition of 370-mile, triple-layer fence along the border. Authorizes President Bush’s plan to send 6,000 National Guardsman to the U.S.-Mexican border. To do what? Oh, provide intelligence and surveillance support to U.S. Border Patrol agents for they cannot catch and detain illegal immigrants (CNN.com, 5/17/06). "Border State Governors expressed concern that diverting troops to the border would exhaust Guard members already drained by war deployments…and would not have troops available to deal with forest fires or other natural diseases.” (New York Times, 5/17/06) How fast can you say Hurricane Katrina? Shouldn’t a change in border security have been top priority immediately following 9/11? Oh, I am sorry…too many photo ops, too little time.

Using a bulldozer to create a new path and then leaving all the broken trees and shrubs to navigate through is not a better way to get to our destination. For the sake of diverting issues President Bush speaks to the American people like Rameses in The Ten Commandments… "So let it be written, so let it be done," with no guidance or forethought.

This President took a hard line against Iraq. A country thousands of miles and an ocean away-waged war against this country, overthrew its government…killing its people who opposed these outside forces and putting our Americans in danger and yet continues soft policy against the corrupt government right next to us. “The rich are richer and the poor, we are poorer,” said Arturo Sierra, 38, an electrician in Mexico. “The government has taken it upon itself to deliver the country to foreign governments and to the rich Mexicans, who continue exploiting workers with miserable salaries.”

Sending the National Guard “will not stop the flow of migrants. To the contrary, it will probably go up,” as people try to get into the U.S. with hopes of applying for a possible amnesty program, said Julieta Nunez Gonzalez, the local representative of Mexico’s National Immigration Institute. Immigrant support groups estimate 500 people died trying to cross the border in 2005. (CNN.com, 5/17/06) One Mexican migrant commented, “Even with a lot of guards and soldiers in place, we have to jump that puddle. My family is hungry and there is no work in my land. I have to risk it.”

This new path is sure to take more lives needlessly for the sake of salvaging corrupt relationships in the maze of money.

Immigration: Part II-A Foreign Policy

In a land that insists on the falsehood of “Innocent Till Proven Guilty”, prejudice has once again filled this nation’s atmosphere. Collective fingerpointing at all illegal immigrants regardless. But to fairly look at immigration, we must first look at from where these people are emigrating.

The New York Times 1/14/06 headline reads, “Wealth Grows, but Health Care Withers in China”. After the collapse of ‘evil’ communism, where everyone had free healthcare, “China’s economic reforms have turned an almost uniformly poor nation into an increasingly prosperous one.” But the collapse of socialized medicine has left rural areas without sufficient resources. The former system of free clinics has disappeared and coverage in these areas is 79% UNINSURED. “The failure of the government to provide decent health care for peasants has reinforced the idea of China as two separate nations: one urban and increasingly comfortable, the other rural and increasingly miserable.” Democratic leaders cheered when communism was overthrown in China. Our companies have infiltrated their economy and our government allows a $202 billion trade deficit with China in 2005 alone. Yet we turn our backs.

For poor Nigerian villages, a battleground has ensued after the oil milling below the ground. “Conflict has left dozens dead and wounded, sent hundreds feeling their homes. It has laid bare the desperate struggle of impoverished communities to reap crumbs from the lavish banquet the oil boom has laid in this…poor corner of the globe.” (Lydia Polgreen, New York Times) Government has removed itself and the oil companies have taken over as dictators. “They see the oil companies as being the nearest government to them,” said Don S. Bonham, a spokesman for Shell. Africa is expected to provide the United States with a quarter of its oil supply in the next decade. (Lydia Polgreen, New York Times) The communities are fighting over the oil fields which has an annual budget of more than half a billion dollars to spend on its 3 million people. “But most of it goes to white elephants like a new mansion for the governor.” (Lydia Polgreen, New York Times) Yet we turn our backs.

Complaining about service jobs being outsourced to India, each year, about 200,000 (40,000 below the age of 16) Nepalese women are trafficked across the Indian border and sold there into slave-like conditions. Victims end up as sweatshop workers, domestic servants and even prostitutes in the exploding sex trade. (“Sold to the Circus for $13.42”, Marie Claire, Feb 2006) This article discussed the experiences of Gita Lama, who at 13, was sold to the circus for 1000 rupees ($13.42). Gita came from a village that had no electricity and the entire village pumps its water from a single well. Her situation worsened after being sold and others like her. Abused and beaten, one girl recalls, “I existed like the living dead. I didn’t have choice. I just shut my mind to everything and dealt with it, but I wasn’t really alive.” Yet we turn our backs.

Since most immigration is believed to be from Mexico…

In Yolanda’s hometown, a tiny coastal village near Zihuatanejo, Mexico, dusty plots of land barely yield enough corn to feed the families who harvest it. Death by starvation is an ever-present reality. Growing up, Yolanda remembers eating iguanas, armadillos, and pigeons when the harvest failed and her father became desperate to feed his 10 children. During the rainy season, the children huddled under a dripping cardboard roof in a one-room wooden hut with no stove, refrigerator, or running water. Despite all this, she dreamed of a high school education. But at 14, she was on her way home from class when an older man from her village pushed her off her bicycle and raped her. Because she was no longer a virgin, she was forced, by shame, into marrying the man who stole her innocence. Pregnant, her new husband beat her. Finding the strength, she left him. For what many might seem like an obvious choice, being young, with no money, no education, and no where to go, a neighbor offered Yolanda a chance for employment in the United States.

“It was a moment of desperation. I wanted to make money to give my daughter a better life, so what had happened to me wouldn’t happen to her,” recalls Yolanda, who believed she was signing up for a job as a waitress. Leaving her daughter with her mother, she packed a single bag and headed for the U.S. Shortly after arriving, the true nature of her job was revealed and a reality made clear. Yolanda was sold into sex trafficking. We hear about these incidents overseas, but the truth is, they happen right here in this great land. Knowing that if she left, she would be reported to immigration, she had nowhere to turn. She couldn’t go back to Mexico…“In Mexico, if you don’t have money, you don’t have anything. I stayed because I was afraid for my family.”

The Department of Justice estimates that every year, 17,500 people in the U.S are victims of “human trafficking”-foreigners brought into the country by coercion, threats, or physical violence and sold to a trafficker for forced labor. And yet we turn our backs?

Note: This Administration’s only foreign policy has been that of warfare. Now on the domestic front, giving amnesty to all illegal immigrants does not solve what plagues us. We must look at each individual case and allow people like Yolanda the chance for a better life…and maybe one day soon, obtain her dream.

Immigration: Part I-The Crystal Ball

The Puritans were people who grew discontent in the Church of England and worked towards religious, moral and societal reforms. They asserted that The Church of England had become a product of political struggles and man-made doctrines. Escaping persecution from church leadership and the King, they came to America. (http://www.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/puritans.html) Settling into a foreign land, they encountered numerous hardships. Coming from a different lifestyle, customs and language, there were many conflicts with the indigenous people of the land.

The first notable sign of strain was the Powhatan Confederacy that lasted from 1622-1644. Much of the initial ill will was rooted in the colonists' belief that the Indians would welcome them and willingly supply food. Their perspective was that exchanging European tools and Christianity for sustenance could forge a mutually- beneficial arrangement. That bargain made little sense to the natives. The settlers failed to realize that the Indians only hunted and gathered little more than their immediate needs required and additional pressure on their food supply by the colonists raised a real possibility of starvation. Tensions were heightened when the colonists allowed their livestock to wander into Indian cornfields…wiping out crops, and especially when the whites used their superior firepower to extort food contributions from the tribes. (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1155.html)

In retaliation in 1622, the Indians launched a surprise attack on the settlements killing nearly 350 whites. (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1155.html) Warfare between the races continued for another decade, but neither side won the battle. Bloodshed was the only notable trophy. The settlers gave up any pretense of coexisting with the Indians and embarked upon a policy of extermination.

Fast forward to the 21st century for another battle among the “natives” and “immigrants” of this land: The updated version has immigrants coming here with the belief that the American people would welcome them, supply aid…adding additional pressure to government programs, and allow them to take American jobs and not pay income tax on them. The immigrant perspective being one of taking on duties that American’s would not and offered more culture to the “melting pot”. Tensions are heightening once again…

Will this lead to the same horrible outcome of fighting, killing and extermination?

Note: With the forceful emotions embedded in this topic, I feel we will be condemned to repeat history if we do not turn our focus on the reasons WHY people are leaving their homes for America. Stay tuned for this discussion…