It’s in places like Carpentersville where we may be witnessing the opening of a deep and profound fissure in the American landscape. Over the past two years, more than 40 local and state governments have passed ordinances and legislation aimed at making life miserable for illegal immigrants in the hope that they’ll have no choice but to return to their countries of origin. Deportation by attrition, some call it. One of the first ordinances was passed in Hazleton, Pa., and was meant to bar illegal immigrants from living and working there. It served as a model for many local officials across the country, including Sigwalt and Humpfer. On July 26, a federal judge struck down Hazleton’s ordinance, but the town’s mayor, Lou Barletta, plans to appeal the decision. “This battle is far from over,” he declared the day of the ruling. States and towns have looked for other ways to crack down on illegal immigrants. Last month, Prince William County in northern Virginia passed a resolution trying to curb illegal immigrants’ access to public services. Waukegan, another Illinois town, has voted to apply for a federal program that would allow its police to begin deportation charges against those who are here illegally. A week after the Senate failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform, Arizona’s governor, Janet Napolitano, signed into law an act penalizing businesses that knowingly hire undocumented immigrants. “One of the practical effects of this failure” to enact national immigration reform, Napolitano wrote to the Congressional leadership, “is that Arizona, and states across the nation, must now continue to address this escalating problem on their own.” Admittedly, the constitutionality of many of these new laws is still in question, and some of the state bills and local ordinances simply duplicate what’s already in force nationally. But with Congress’s inability to reach an agreement on an immigration bill, the debate will continue among local officials like those in Carpentersville, where the wrangling often seems less about illegal immigration than it does about whether new immigrants are assimilating quickly enough, if at all. In Carpentersville, the rancor has turned neighbor against neighbor. Once you scrape away the acid rhetoric, though, there’s much people actually agree on ”” but given the ugliness of the taunts and assertions, it’s unlikely that will ever emerge.
My wife spent spent part of her very young youth in Carpentersville. When I showed her the cover of the NYT Mag on Sunday, she didn’t recognize it.
When the Federal Government is impotent, it is up to “We the People” to take action. Then our ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES may start getting the bigger picture and follow suit.
That’s what the Founding Fathers said. In fact Thomas Jefferson was want to say on occasion that he thought there needed to be a revolution at least once a generation.
It is extremely unfortunate that the issue of illegal immigration has been so side-tracked that it has been made to appear as a conflict between Hispanics and Anglos, or as a question of immigration itself. It is not! The question is about those who are here illegally. It does not matter if those here illegally are from Mexico, Ireland, or Canada, nor is it a question of whether they speak English or Urdu; it is about the fact that they are here ILLEGALLY. And if people are able to come to America illegally, and to reside here illegally, and to make lives for themselves and their families, then it is obvious that the borders of this nation are not secure. It is also obvious that if people are here illegally, more than just in passing, they are not contributing fully to the community and the nation through state and federal income taxes and social security, etc. And the fact that so many here illegally are partaking of such programs as medicaid, DSS services, social security, medicare. etc. is putting undo burden upon already over-burdened systems. The bottom line is that if someone is in the US illegally, they are not an “undocumented worker”, or an “undocumented American” as one politically correct senator tried to say in Congress; they are criminals.
As far as the language issue goes, it is true that every immigrant group has struggled with assimilation. It is also true that previous immigrant groups had to learn to speak English or fall farther behind socially and economically. And while the sociologists may attempt comparing the situation of 2007 with early 20th century immigrantion, I do not recall Italians, Armenians, Swedes, or Germans demanding road signs, shops, and bi-lingual education for their children. And the idea that we should suddenly put everything in Spanish for those coming to this country is absurd. My mother in law is from Panama and just because she married an American GI, she did not automatically become a citizen. She had to study–she probably knows more about American govern,ent and the Constitution than most people born in the USA–and she had to demonstrate some knowledge of English. Although she has been here for 50 years, we still have a hard time understanding her, but she does her best to speak and read English. She reads the newspaper every day. She votes in every election. And at the age of 83, she still works part time.
Will B.
Exactly. In a CNN town square public forum, the discussion was continually being sidetracked by Hispanics in the audience who were calling the moderators and panelists ‘racists’ and ‘anti-hispanic’. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Those who are calling for securing our borders are doing just what our reprsentatives and lawmakers need to do: keep immigration for those who follow the law and come to the U.S. LEGALLY.
I agree with #3 and #4. I am an immigrant from Canada. It took me 7 years and $6000 dollars to gain legal residency here in this country, but it was not wasted. I have a degree in nursing, and my husband has a Ph.D. We support ourselves. We follow the laws of this country, even though at times I may differ in my personal opinion, having been raised in Canada. This is not about race, language, etc. It is about LEGALITY. Doing what is right. I, personally am against illegal immigration and do not support it. Anyone who does support it, and assists any illegal immigrants here, is seriously flawed in their integrity.
I pray the government eventually gets it right and fixes this problem.
May God bless them all!
By marrying a Hispanic lady I’ve “inherited” a bunch of Mexican relatives, some of whom have come to the US illegally. So my feeling in this area has become ambivalent at best. Now that I’ve slept in their beds, sat under their roofs during a storm, and eaten their food, my feelings are, shall we say, complicated.
No, they shouldn’t come illegally. They should apply for their papers and come when permission is granted. They want to get something better for themselves and their families, but it should be done the right way.
But…
Some relatives in Central Mexico, who believe in doing things according to the law, applied for their papers 10 years ago. Out of 9, only one application has even been acknowledged. They are dirt poor. Some other relatives in Northern Mexico, who are fairly well-off, applied just before New Year and they all now have their papers. The ones who didn’t need an opportunity got first preference and the ones who need an opportunity desperately are still waiting. Something not right about that.
Other relatives didn’t wait, but swam across the Rio Grande. Some of them came to us for help and shelter. What could we do????? They are family first and illegal second.
But they can’t get welfare, nor car insurance, nor even drivers’ licenses. They have to hide. The only help they can get is WIC and medical care for the children and whatever the Church can provide. “All else, pay cash”. So they do whatever they can, working at sometimes-despicable jobs for people who like as not will cheat them of their pay and turn them in to Migra if they complain. But this is better than at home!!!
And they have to hide.
Something not right in all that.
In faith, Dave
Viva Texas
Dave,
I would love to live in England; that was my plan before I became ill and I was in the process of doing the paperwork to teach in England. They have a shortage of teachers and it’s one of the professions that has special approval status for immigrants. But, then, I became too ill to work at all and I can’t emigrate because I can’t work.
I want to move to England all the more now because I don’t have access to health care here even though I have a serious illness. I have wonderful friends in England who have wanted me to come and stay with them for months. It would probably be possible for me to go over there to live with them and hide. My disability checks are direct-deposited and I could access my bank account from England. If I got sick, the English health care system would take care of me and claim I was just visiting.
But I would never do that. It’s dishonest and it puts my friends in a horrible position. I would also feel rather guilty about accepting free health care without putting anything into the system. No, the only way I’ll go to England is if I somehow achieve remission and can go to teach, as planned. Anything else is dishonest and immoral. I just have to do the best I can here and hope I don’t die before getting Medicare.
In other words, because my own country is failing me, do I have the right to go to another country illegally and demand care and services? No, I don’t. I have to do whatever it takes to survive here and I have to push for change in whatever way I can. (I have written to all of my state and federal representatives and letters to the editor.)
There is no excuse for Mexico not taking care of its people and using its proximity to the U.S. to export poverty. That country is rich in natural resources and the only reason it’s gotten away with its rampant corruption is because the people flee and don’t revolt. The government counts on it.
And, frankly, it burns my britches that my son and I don’t have access to health care and services but illegal immigrants show up at ERs and must be treated without expectation of payment. They use up all of the “charity care” that hospitals are expected to provide. If I have a health crisis and have to go to the ER without insurance, I assure you that the hospitals will turn my file over to collection agencies and I will be harassed for payment, even though we’re living just a bit above the poverty line.
I don’t care how nice or well-intentioned these people are, they are still using the U.S. and letting their own country off the hook; they are breaking the law. And when they wave the Mexican flag at us and shout their slogans in Spanish, knowing that they’ve given their country of origin a free pass and all of their loyalty, Americans rightly get upset.
No, my relatives don’t have the “right” to come here illegally. But they are family; I can’t turn them away unhelped, and I can’t ignore the favoritism shown to richer Mexicans seeking to enter the US legally. And I can’t condemn those who are so desperate to improve their lots that they are *willing* to put up with the treatment they receive when they arrive in the Land of Opportunity. For one thing, I have to remember that just a couple of generations ago my own ancestors were in the same boat (so to speak).
But I have to wonder if you’ve ever been to Mexico to actually see the efforts made by that government to improve the lives of its people. Yes, there’s corruption, but also in the US, and the last President, Mr Fox, did make strong efforts to reduce that corruption. He didn’t entirely succeed, but he helped a lot. Further, Mexico is nowhere near as rich as the US, and nowhere near as able to undertake helping projects, and Mexico is the richest country in Latin America. There are many latinos from even farther south who are even more desperate than Mexicans.
And you have some things wrong about illegals in the US. ANY person who goes to an ER must be given life-saving treatment, at least in Texas. That applies to you as well as to illegals. Yes, the hospital will try to collect, and illegals are more mobile than you, but their lives are much less settled than yours. And medical care or food given to the kids doesn’t benefit the parents much. And none of my relatives have waived the Mexican flag or yelled slogans; they are afraid of Migra and don’t dare attract attention. And last, your income just a bit above the poverty line would seem like a princely wage to many of my relatives.
Please, though, I’m not defending them and I understand your frustration; I even share that frustration to some extent. They are illegal and should not be here.
But this whole situation causes me serious problems with one of Jesus’ two main commands: “Love your neighbor as yourself”. That command teaches me that love starts with the persons nearest to you; however, I think a person who is farther away but has a greater need is more of a neighbor than someone closer with a lesser need. The legalisms involved conflict me greatly. I just wish this rich US could make itself more welcoming to those who are not so rich.
In faith, Dave
Viva Texas
Yes, Dave, I’ve traveled around Mexico quite a bit. And what struck me the most is how the “Spanish” Mexicans treat the “mestizo” people. It’s wretched. No amount of infrastructure will change the situation unless they offer free secondary school to ALL, not just to those who can afford to pay for it. Education is supposed to be the great equalizer and a lack thereof permits the two-tier class system there to flourish. You repeat that “rich” Mexicans can come legally but the poor cannot but it has little to do with money — every country admits people based on needed skills. With little education and few skills, yes, the people will remain poor in either country.
Does Mexico have the means for real change? Of course they do! But their protectionistic policies make it difficult for the economy to share the wealth. The richest man in the world right now is Mexican, btw. They have the means but they don’t have the will, especially since they count on the U.S. to siphon off their poor. And nothing will change unless the poor DEMAND change, as they did in Europe.
Glad you think I live on a “princely sum.” Consider that I have advanced degrees and worked all of my life here, only to lose my house, health care, and most of my possessions when I got sick. Am I better off than a Mexican peasant? Of course. But a Mexican peasant hasn’t gone into debt to get an education and worked hard in a profession, only to wind up in a mobile home park too crippled to go out most days because the health care needed is out of reach. If you haven’t noticed, it’s EXPENSIVE to live in America if you pay your taxes and play by the rules.
Every dollar spent on illegal immigrants is a dollar less for poor Americans who need help. And, yes, we have poor Americans, many from Latin America who came here legally but have found themselves displaced by illegal workers. I taught in an impoverished Border town; the majority of my male students went on to vocational school to learn a trade. It was difficult for them to find work as carpenters, mechanics, and landscapers because the jobs were going to illegal immigrants and if they did find work, it was at a much lower wage than they should have earned.
This isn’t right! We have many problems and challenges in this country to solve for our own citizens and our social services are either stretched to the limit or non-existent. You tout this as a “rich” country that should take care of all of the poor in the world but you fail to realize that the U.S. lags behind other industrial nations in education, health care, and other human services. The gap between rich and poor continues to widen. We certainly don’t need to import more poor people as the situation is creating enough of our own.
Somehow I don’t think Jesus would think much of a country that doesn’t take care of its own poor and needy and allows the influx of others only to provide cheap labor and make companies and landowners more money. And I don’t think He would let Mexico off the hook, either.
“The only help they can get is WIC, and medical care for the children, and whatever the Church can provide”? And who do you think pays for WIC and the children’s medical care? It is the US Taxpayer who pays. The situation you describe is all too real and it testifies to the depth of the immigration question. There needs to be a complete overhaul of the immigration system in the US and the application system needs to be streamlined in some way for those who wish to come to America legally. However, as cruel as it may sound, not everyone who expresses an interest in coming to America should be able to do so. This is not to suggest that America should only take those who already are wealthy, educated, and skilled. However, in the NYT piece about Carpentersville, Illinois, a factory was mentioned that hires many illegals, most getting around $7.65 per hour, which in a forty hour week grosses $300 plus change. $300 per week in the Chicago metropolitan area already places one at or below the poverty line. The great American ideal of owning one’s home is pretty much out since homes the inflation adjusted median home prices in the Chicago metro area now go for anywhere between $250K and $300 K. Rent prices are not far behind and rentals for families are at a premium. And at $7.65 per hour, is the employer providing and insurance plan? And how much gets deducted from salary for that? So then, even if we have an unskilled worker at the Carpentersville, IL business who is here legally, he or she is probably in need of a couple of state and federal assistance programs. And should the general population of the local community, the state, and the nation necessarily accept this burden?
The fact is that while the US is the richest nation on earth, we still have our own poor. We have a growing population of those who are in serious debt just trying to keep pace with the cost of living, and those who are a pay check or two from complete economic collapse. Many of us with educations and jobs, who have adult children who have gotten educations and skills and who have jobs, see the possibilities of our children’s owning homes, having adequate insurance, and being able to raise families slipping away. At the other end of the spectrum, those of us who are at or apporaching retirement are now being told that we must work until 67 or 70 in order to collect our full social security and many in their 70’s and even 80’s continue to have jobs just to pay for their housing, their groceries, and their medicines. The fact is that the immigration debate is being driven in Congress, not by those who truly wish to help people come to this great nation and become part of the American family, but by those who want cheap labor to line their own pockets. But while they hide behind the appeal to help those seeking a better life, they merely wish to use them to make their own lives better. We can and must converse and debate the “Christian” approach but I also suggest we remember that there’s a big difference between being “a fool for Christ” and “a fool, for Christ’s sake”.
Teatime, your experience in Mexico is somewhat different from mine. My experience is primarily with country people, but we do have relatives in Monterrey, Toluca, and Mexico City. Our city relatives are pretty similar to the country relatives except that their employment isn’t agricultural. I prefer the country or Monterrey; I don’t much like Mexico City.
Actually, the Mexicans I know, poor or midclass, have education and world-awareness levels equal to or better than the average here. Recently my wife and I spent a week down near San Felipe, Guanajuato, on an ejido with some relatives. Some of the teenagers very knowlegeably explained about their family’s crops, the planting cycle, markets, influence of climate, preservation of the soil, etc. I was impressed. The family are working with a gov’t program from what sounds like Mexico’s version of the US Forestry Service to encourage reforestation; they are planting pine trees with gov’t-provided front money on an interest-free loan, and are looking at the paper market and an emerging market for christmas trees. One daughter goes to Guanajuato University, working to pay her tuition, which must not be that high. Most of the extended family is helping her too. Another plans to go to college, hopefully at Texas A&M; she will come back to Mexico so she can help out. We also stayed briefly with some very poor relatives on another ejido near-by. They live in a much dryer area so their chances are less. It’s too dry for trees, for example, and the alfalfa/beans/corn combination works only with expensive irrigation. But their education levels are as good.
I just don’t see any lack of education there in comparison with the US, and their educations are harder to pay for.
One odd thing is that none of our Mexican relatives consider themselves poor. Yes, they sometimes get pretty desperate, but something always turns up and God always provides. They share among themselves in extended families which are much larger than our nuclear families, and sometimes some of them will “swim the river” and send the money home. Some work as much as 75 miles away, and commute daily by bus. Others leave temporarily to work in other areas of the country, and send money home. There isn’t the welfare structure there that we have, so they have to work it out. But, yes, many of them would love to have incomes equal to yours.
Personally, I’m glad that my country is at least generous enough to give food and medical care to children, even illegal children, and even though I have to pay for it. Yes, we need to help our own first; but the Samaritan traveller helped a foreigner, and God told Israel not to pick up the grain which fell in the fields and not to harvest the corners of the fields so the foreigners and the poor could do some gleaning. They also are our brothers. The problem is how to balance our generosity between our own and the foreigners. We CAN’T take care of all the poor people in the world, but we can’t ignore them either. The ones I know want to work and are willing to do even despicable jobs, and we shouldn’t totally prevent that. We actually ought to be forcing more of our own poor to work.
I’m not looking at it from the perspective of the rich guy who will use them and cheat them for his own profit, or or even that of the taxpayer who has lost earlier gains and faces health problems. I have to look at the person who wants to improve his family’s lot in life, the one who happens to be my personal relative and not a stranger. And I’m looking at all those scriptures which say to help the poor.
So, I’m a taxpayer, and a relative, and a Christian. I’m conflicted by this situation.
In faith, Dave
Viva Texas
Well said, Will B!!!
OK, Dave, you say they have education equal to ours (which I don’t believe — if this were the case, why do U.S. schools on the Border send their cast-off books and materials to Mexico? And why do the parents in Mexico do whatever they can to get their kids in U.S. schools?), they have jobs and skills and knowledge and they get by. So, why are they coming here, then?
And I’m sorry if this sounds rude but I have to ask: You’ve framed the situation in regards to your family and what you believe, so why didn’t you send them money every month so they wouldn’t come here illegally? Or, why didn’t you help them get them immigration help and lobby on their behalf or help them to apply for a guest worker program so they could come legally? You say they have skills; there are several guest worker programs, why didn’t you hook them up with one? It took me less than a minute to find this:
http://www.doleta.gov/business/gw/guestwkr/
Sorry, but close proximity doesn’t entitle people to cross the Border whenever they want and expect that the American people will take care of them.You mention again my “abundance” (I’d love to see you and your wife live on $1,000 per month in the States); if I went to Mexico, indeed, I could live pretty well on that money. But take a look at Mexico’s immigration laws sometime. They have VERY protectionist policies, as well they should! No way will Mexico admit any other country’s poor!
The US government’s post-1965 immigration policy is an exercise in social engineering that has no precedent in human history. The reason for the policy is compelling enough: in order to avoid hyperinflation, the US must greatly expand its tax and economic base. It is a shortsighted policy because first, immigrants get old and sick too, and second, the Third World is not coming here to pay taxes for a bunch of stupid old white people who can’t reproduce themselves.
The end result will be the same suffered by all multi-ethnic, multi-cultural empires. An overextended central government will find its power devolving to the power centers of its constituent nations, and the US will follow Iraq, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Brittania, Rome, etc. in breaking up along its ethnic and cultural fault lines. The breakup need not be violent, but historically such things are.
Teatime, you haven’t read what I said. Based on what our relatives say and talk about, and the knowledge they display, I would judge their educational and world-awareness levels to be as high as or higher than the US average. There are a few who don’t measure up to that but most, richer or poor, do. I’m not otherwise qualified to judge their educational system. If I were a Mexican school I would take my books anywhere I could get them. As to Mexican parents trying to get their children in US schools, that’s true about some but not about others I know. My friends in San Felipe certainly would like to get their one daughter into A&M;, but that’s because of A&M;’s particular strength in a certain kind of physics the girl wants to study (they explained it to me but I didn’t follow all the scientific part). The other daughter is quite content at Guanajuato University learning about banks and international finance. The rest are concentrating on making their livings. None of the other relatives are trying to get their children into US schools. I don’t know if that observation applies generally to all Mexicans.
I do send money to them. But the point is they want to be able to EARN it. That does them far better than whatever I can send. We can’t intervene or sponsor any of them until the US acknowledges their applications for legal entry; as I explained before, the US hasn’t yet acknowledged 8 of the 9 applications submitted 10 years ago. So we’re stymied just like they are. And they are applying for employment entry so guest worker programs are automatically included. Thanks for the suggestions, though.
Now, I’m pretty sure you aren’t going to agree with me, and you have a different perspective on the matter. For myself, I’m not going to abandon my family members or my frustration at the treatment they receive in or from the US. I’ve pretty well exlained my thinking and confliction, and you’ve explained yours.
Maybe that’s good enough?
In faith, Dave
Viva Texas
Fine, Dave. Just spare a thought for the poor and sick citizens in this country, too, eh?
Reactionary, I’m concerned about that, too. The factionalization of the U.S. is pitting everyone against each other — as everyone is asserting their “special rights.” And it’s gotten to the point where folks have to push forward their differences and cry “discrimination!” just to be heard.