Thread: Anti-immigration Hispanics speak out

Anti-immigration Hispanics speak out
By PATRICK McGEE
Star-Telegram staff writer

Thu, Oct. 18, 2007

At an anti-deportation march in Irving on Saturday, one of the leaders told the mostly Hispanic crowd, "We want to send a message that there is no division in our community. We are one."

But some Hispanics were there to undermine that statement and demonstrate a sticking point in the immigration debate: Many Hispanics are among the strongest opponents of illegal immigration.

"We've been here 38 years, and we deserve to be here, not some illegal immigrants," said Eva Hinojosa, whose parents were from Mexico. "They should go back to their own country; they don't belong here."

She and her husband, Enrique Hinojosa, both of Irving, stood with about 125 counterprotesters who support Irving's Criminal Alien Program. The program has led to the deportation of more than 1,600 illegal immigrants in the past 13 months.

"They want to take our country over. We're not going to stand for that," said Enrique Hinojosa, a sixth-generation American.

Both sides of the debate say Hispanics are on their side. Each can point to polls.

A Gallup Poll taken in June, for example, shows that Hispanics have more positive views of immigration than blacks or Anglos, with three-quarters of Hispanics calling immigration a good thing. But more than half of Hispanics say that the United States has too many immigrants from Latin America.

'Not alone'

Sara Legvold, originally from Cuba and now a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Keller, was among the residents who pressed JPS Health Network last month not to allow illegal immigrants into its preventive healthcare program for poor people. The Fort Worth-based county hospital continues to deny access to illegal immigrants.

Sam Aceves of Farmers Branch, whose grandfather was from Mexico, campaigned for the city's ban on renting apartments to illegal immigrants. Voters approved the measure in May by a 2-1 ratio, although the ban is now tied up in the courts.

Legvold and Aceves scoffed at any idea that they should be on the other side of the debate.

"They're here as invaders, as illegal aliens, as criminals," Legvold said. "When I see they're being favored over American citizens in every way, yes, I am outraged, and I am not alone."

Aceves described illegal immigrants as criminals and said he drives his daughter to another school so she won't have to go to class in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district, which he perceives as overcrowded with illegal immigrants.

These viewpoints have a voice on the national level with You Don't Speak for Me, a Hispanic group appalled at what it calls anti-American acts by the pro-immigration movement.

Al Rodriguez, a retired U.S. Army colonel, said he started the organization in May 2006 when he saw pro-immigrant marchers take down American flags.

"That's what really hurt me, as I'm a military retiree," he said. "I said, 'Well, wait a minute, these folks aren't speaking for us.'"

Rodriguez said his group quickly grew to more than 5,000 members.

'Duped'

Hispanic activists on the other side of the issue downplay the influence of activists such as Rodriguez.

Lisa Navarrete, vice president of the pro-immigrant National Council of La Raza, said Hispanics overwhelmingly favor her group's effort to legalize illegal immigrants.

She said her opponents in the immigration debate cling to groups such as You Don't Speak for Me to hide their anti-Hispanic bias.

"I think it provides an awful lot of cover for the anti-immigration movement ... the same way the conservative movement has raised up a lot of conservative African-Americans," she said.

Brent Wilkes, national executive director for the League of United Latin American Citizens, said You Don't Speak for Me is just a "front group" set up by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington, D.C.-based group that wants to tighten immigration enforcement.

"These Latinos are duped," he said. "When they had slavery, I suppose they were able to find a couple of African-Americans out there who said it was a good thing."

Aceves said he's often called a traitor for his stance.

"I get threatened. I got my house paintballed. I've been called traitor. They got their little kids to call me vicious names," he said.

Rodriguez said he has suffered similar treatment and has been called Tio Taco, a wordplay on Uncle Tom.

Carlos Quintanilla, the activist who organized Saturday's anti-deportation march in Irving, discounted the thicket of news cameras the Hinojosas attracted as they lambasted illegal immigrants.

"In every community, you're going to have difference of opinion," he said. "The media always highlights Hispanics speaking about it, but we received a lot of letters and e-mails from Anglos supporting our position. "

Online: www.dontspeakforme.com; www.nclr.org; www.lulac.org

HISPANICS ON IMMIGRATION

Both sides of the immigration debate say Hispanics are on their side. Gallup Poll results show that 55 percent of Hispanics think there are too many immigrants from Latin America, but their responses to other questions show that they view immigration more positively than Anglos or blacks.

Three-quarters of Hispanics think immigration is good for the U.S., while only 59 percent of Anglos and 55 percent of blacks do.

Only 30 percent of Hispanics think immigration should be reduced, while 46 percent of blacks and 48 percent of Anglos do.

More than half of Anglos (63 percent) and blacks (52 percent) believe that immigration increases crime, but only 41 percent of Hispanics agree.

About half of blacks and Anglos think immigrants are hurting the economy. But 55 percent of Hispanics believe that immigrants are helping the economy.

Source: Gallup Poll data from June 2007

HISPANICS IN THE UNITED STATES

Hispanics' growing numbers give them a powerful voice in the immigration debate.

In 2003, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that Hispanics' higher birth and immigration rates had made them the largest minority group in the country. They made up nearly 15 percent of the population in 2006.

Latin America is a major source of immigration to the U.S. The federal Homeland Security Department's Office of Immigration Statistics estimates that 57 percent of illegal immigrants in the U.S. come from Mexico. Nearly 84,000 Mexicans became U.S. citizens last year. That was 12 percent of all people who became citizens, a larger proportion than from any other country.

Patrick McGee, 817-685-3806
pmcgee@star-telegram.com

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/271924.html

I am so thrilled more are standing up. I know it must be hard for them too. Especially with children and that assumption that everything is racial soliderity.....instead of individual responsibility.

Well guess what, just a few minutes ago on the news, they showed Cubans now flooding into Mexico so they can get into the U.S. through the border, and all they have to do is get one foot on American soil and they are allowed to stay!! This is the last straw, everybody in the world knows about our SO. Border!!! It has to stop, now we are going to have to get congress to change the law for Cubans, unbelieveable!!