Posted on 10/02/2006 4:43:12 AM PDT by GarySpFc
I am a fifth-generation Hispanic and would like to express a viewpoint that has not been a major part of the debate about illegal immigration: the impact illegal immigration has on the working poor of this country and the political impotence it has injected into the Chicano community.
Hispanics see firsthand every day the drain illegal immigration has on institutions such as school systems, law enforcement, the criminal justice system, health care and jobs, and as a factor in the depression of wages. Our taxpayer-funded institutions are reeling from this migration into the United States, particularly those that are primarily supposed to be serving the low-income people of this country. In my neighborhood, low-income families are increasingly competing with an endless flow of illegals for limited funds, resources and basic survival necessities.
Those who defend illegal immigration argue that these people are not harming anyone, "all they want is work, they do not bother anyone" and "they only take jobs no one else wants." This naive and simplistic rationale for illegal immigration fails to acknowledge the far-reaching and critical impact on low-income people. I see it every day and I live on the front lines of this invasion.
The competition for low-income housing is one example of how those who advocate for illegals ignore the working families who cannot compete for the high rents landlords are demanding.
A family of four with one breadwinner, for example, has a difficult time meeting the inflated rents being asked for often-substandard housing, not to mention the high costs of energy, food and clothing.
Immigrants, on the other hand, can pay whatever is asked by landlords because they often pack four or five times more working individuals into the unit and, by pooling their resources, manage the often inflated rent. Native Hispanics see their wages driven down and their prices and rents driven up by this abused form of labor.
Too many elitist Hispanic organizations, funded by liberal foundations, have become open-borders advocates, focusing their attention on immigration advocacy, but I fear it comes at the expense of the Latino U.S. citizen.
What about our own community? Education in this country is in a crisis, with statistics for Latinos at appalling levels in most cities while low achievment is spreading at an alarming rate. The graduation rate for Latinos is 20 percent or, in some cases, less.
Higher education is not even a consideration for many young Latinos yet the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and others choose to take policy positions of increasing and packing more into the already overburdened school systems by encouraging more immigration from Mexico and other Third World countries. They do a disservice to this country by overloading the system to the point where the quality of education suffers and schools become mere warehouses. Overcrowded schools lead to more failure and the cycle continues.
Instead of holding Mexico accountable for its immigration policies, these groups pander to and collaborate with a country that uses the United States as a means of abdicating its responsibilities to its poorest citizens. At the same time, Mexico enhances its own economy with a considerable amount of money sent back each year by immigrants - anywhere between $15 billion to $30 billion. Is it any wonder that Mexico has positioned itself in a win-win situation?
The painful reality is that many illegal immigrants with fake Social Security cards are working in just about every kind of employment there is. They are not just picking and topping sugar beets and cleaning toilet bowls, they are in federal and state government employ, public school systems, the fast-food industry, construction, building trades, the restaurant and hotel industries, universities and factories . . . the list is endless.
These are jobs U.S. citizens don't want? Take McDonald's, the mega- hamburger corporation that employs thousands of people. Instead of employing so many immigrants, McDonald's could set up an after- school or summer training program for our youth in high school who in turn would receive valuable training and earn money teenagers badly need. Maybe some youths would take a greater interest in graduating if they had more support from the business community!
I work full time trying to help my community and Colorado, but illegal immigration is giving us supply-side poverty that makes it almost impossible to solve our problems. We need help, not so much in the form of government programs, but to stop the endless chain of poor (illegal) people who arrive in the United States every day, every week, every month and every year.
Longtime political activist Waldo Benavidez is a social service agency director and is co-chair of Defend Colorado Now. He is a resident of Denver.
Good article. Thanks for posting.
Kinda yes and kinda no. The truth is that Hispanics are hurting Hispanics.
As long as mainstream Hispanics refuse to assimilate into our society, speak English, write English, fly the American flag, hold strict allegiance to our country and way of life, cease providing illegals shelter and protection from the law, and quit marching in the streets for "illegal alien rights", they will always hurt themselves.
I don't hold my breath and wait for the pain to go away. I believe it will get much, much worse as Americans realize that we have been invaded by those outside our country and that invasion is fully supported by those inside our country. Now they cry that they're being hurt??????
illegals hurt all law abiding people, but there are quislings about who love it when law abiding people are hurt. Those who love law breakers support the invasion by illegals and the harm done to law abiding people.....ever wonder why? I used to, but I don't anymore.
Most Latino American citizens have done just that, so I'm not sure what the point is you are trying to make. My wife is Latina, her family have been citizens for several generations, her father and all her uncles served in the Armed Forces. And she's more anti-illegal immigration than I am, as are a majority of native-born Latino citizens.
I live in Texas and it is easy to tell the difference from illegals and "mainstream Hispanics". Most "mainstream Hispanics" speak poor Spanish, fly the flag, watch football, grill fajitas with their hamburgers and hot dogs and are assimilated as much as Italians or Asians who still hold to their cultures to a degree.
Thanks for the post!
Very good article.
They have; but 20 million Latinos in America today are not American citizens, but illegals who come here to rape, rather than contribute to, the wealth of our land.
Hope that dummy Cindy Rodriguez over at the Post reads this.
Many freepers responded that cities can not require landlords to ascertain if there are illegals living in rentals. Like this man says, when you have 16 people living in a 2 bedroom, it is a clue.
From experience, landlords demand a set amount for each resident per month($200--$400). As to who they are, what their history is... that is a "Don't ask-Don't tell" proposition.
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What planet do you live on?
oh, her.
The poster did not say "illegals" - he said "mainstream Hispanics". I agree illegals by nature and almost by definition are not prone to assimilate. But the mainstream ones do tend to assimilate.
Very well written...
Photodawg was correct in pointing out the differences in real Hispanics. These invaders are not Hispanics, they are Mexicans and other South American illegals. They are not from Caribbean islands.
Oh, BTW, stop and think WHY that recording comes on the phone when you receive the message "For English press 1, for Spanish press 2" and there are no other numbers to press for any other language. Are they trying to tell you something...like there is a huge amount of Spanish speaking people who have no intention in assimilating and certainly have not passed the requirements of our immigration laws in regards to speaking and writing English to become a citizen?
Don't worry, in the very near future they will change the recordings to say "For Spanish, press 1, for English, press 2."
The people see it, but their "leadership" doesn't see it, because they want more "constituents," legal or not. Black people have been hurt the hardest by immigration, legal and illegal, and have made the most gains during periods when this country allowed little or no immigration. But when was the last time you heard a black "leader" point out the down side of immigration? All they offer those they supposedly lead is a chance to told hands and sing Kumbaya with the immigrants.
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