Immigration

Robbo has a thoughtful post about the Minutemen Project.

Just to throw in my two cents: I think this whole thing is an accident waiting to happen. Sure they're just watching the border. They're not doing anything illegal. They're just making sure that the government is doing what they've promised. I buy that argument and I have no hassles with it. But all it's going to take is for one person to cross the line from watching to acting and kablooie! There's some line about good intentions paving the road to hell, right? I'm not goofing that one, right? I've been nervy about this "project" since it started and I'll be glad when it's over. I'm glad to see that nothing untoward has happened, but it could. The situation just reeks of a search for trouble.

As far as illegal immigration is concerned, well, I don't blame the Mexicans one bit for coming across the border. It's all well and good to try and send them back and to claim that if we guard the border more closely, Mexico will actually have to put in place economic reforms. But, to my mind, you have to look at it from the point of view of the average person who's taking the risk: they need money to feed their families. That's why they come here: they need money. They can't earn that money in Mexico. It's pretty darned simple.

Now, I don't live in a state that borders Mexico, so my views are somewhat biased. I fully realize this, so no one need harangue me about it. I do not have to deal with Mexicans coming over the border and bringing gangs and drug trafficking with them. I do not have to deal with the burdens they place on hospitals and social services. It annoys me that the Mexican government puts out pamphlets advising potential immigrants on how to cross the border safely. I understand fully about sovereignty and about terrorist threats. I understand all about that. But, surprisingly enough, for all of that, I also know there are Mexicans here and in other midwestern states that I've lived in. They've come north looking for work, too. I've known and worked with many illegals. The husband has as well. I've never met a Mexican who was bound and determined---like they're portrayed on the Lou Dobbs Xenophobe Hour of Power---to cross the border so that they could suck up as many of our governmental resources as they could. They just don't come here with that expectation. They come with the expectation that they could have a better life. Social entitlements are secondary.

Case in point: Isaac. Now, I don't know if Isaac was his actual name or if it was the one he attained when he got his fake papers. It doesn't really matter. He worked with the husband down in Des Moines at the restaurant-which-shall-never-be-named-because-I-won't-give-the-bastard-who-owns -the-place-any-free-PR. He was a line cook and he was a Mexican. He'd somehow had hopped the border and had made his way to the middle of Iowa and found himself on the line at this very popular and very busy restaurant. Now, to be clear about it, Isaac was a demanding bastard at work. He was one mean motherfucker who, if you got out of line on his line, gave it to you with both barrels and would have given it to you with a third if that option had been available. He ran a tight ship and he worked his ass off. He also expected anyone and everyone on his line to work just as hard as he did. If that meant staying two hours past close to make sure the grease trap was adequately drained and sanitized, he'd be there and he'd be on the back of the person who's job it was. He had worked his way up from being a migrant laborer, to being a busboy, to being the head line cook, two steps below the head chef on the totem pole of the kitchen. Somewhere along the way, he learned how to speak excellent English. This man, this illegal immigrant, worked as many hours as he could get his hands on. They actually told him to stop hogging all the overtime, he was working so much.

Wanna know why he worked so much? He had a son back home in Mexico. His mother was taking care of him. He needed the money to send to her, so that they could eat. And was he ever proud of his son. When I would chat with him (he wasn't mean to me, obviously) he would pull out the most recent picture he'd received and his brown eyes would just melt into big puddles of paternal pride. I don't know where the boy's mother was. It wasn't relevant. Issac was doing his darnedest to make sure his child wouldn't go without. Ever. Because that was his definiton of a bad father: one who made their child go without because they were too afraid to take risks. It killed him that his son was still in Mexico. He wanted him in Des Moines, with him, and was working toward gaining legal immigration for his son and his mother, but was having a hard time with it, obviously. He didn't want them to have to hide and he wasn't going to bring them to this country until he could make sure he could make that happen.

I know that not everyone who crosses the border is like Isaac. I've run into my fair share of Mexicans, for whom the phrase "No habla," means I'm not going to do whatever the hell you're asking me to do now. I know that most people have, too. But, if just one of every ten people who crosses the border is like Isaac? Well, wow. Because that's what America is all about: this place provides the opportunity to make your fortune, if you're willing to work hard. Nothing's guaranteed in this country. I get pissed off at people who say illegals are getting a free ride. That's bull. They pay sales tax, gas tax, property taxes---if they're renting, part of the rent goes to pay those taxes---and if they've purchased a set of false documents, replete with a fake social security number, are you honestly going to tell me that the Federal and State Governments don't profit from receiving withholding taxes from paychecks on which a return will never be filed? They pay plenty, even if they're being paid under the table in cash. Some of that money does make it back into the economy. I'd love to see all the people against all those resource-sucking immigrants try to make up the money that would be lost if their anti-immgrations plans actually worked. It wouldn't happen.

I find it so damn incongrous that we, who live in a country populated almost entirely of the descendants of immigrants, are so quick to deny that right to others who would like to come here. Others who bear no ill will and aren't here to cause trouble; people who would just like to, you know, eat. It just blows my mind that people could forget this. Both of my grandfathers immigrated to this country---one from Germany when he was a small child, and one from Poland when he was a middle-aged widower with three daughters to care for---meaning that I'm one generation removed from the boat. Both of my grandmothers were born here, but their parents weren't. They immigrated, too. I'm sure it would blow their minds to see what their children and grandchildren have achieved with their lives. No one's famous, but everyone has at least a few years in college, some have graduate degrees, some work for themselves, some work for others, but most are successful at it. Everyone is self-sufficient. Everyone pays their taxes. And everyone knows that none of this would have been possible, that we probably wouldn't be on this Earth in any incarnation, if they hadn't gotten on the big boat and sailed across the vast blue sea to this country. It may sound like I'm romanticizing all of this, but, really, I'm not. I'm a direct beneficiary of the brave action of leaving your homeland behind and starting a new life elsewhere. For everything they gained, they had to give something up. That's not easy an easy thing to do. How people could forget this, I do not know, but they have.

There has to be a better way of doing all of this. Guarding the border like we are is a waste of time and resources. That money would be better spent documenting the people who wanted to come here to earn an honest living. The ones who wanted to come to start trouble, well, they can stay where they're at. The problem right now is that we're getting both kinds of immigrants---the good and the bad---because the system we have in place does not freakin' work. I think even the Minutemen would agree with that sentiment.

Posted by Kathy at April 26, 2005 02:25 PM