Thread: Many U.S.-born Latinos: Illegals not paying dues

http://www.hutchnews.com/news/regional/ ... 1606.shtml

Many U.S.-born Latinos: Illegals not paying dues


Still, most see undocumented immigrants in a sympathetic, favorable light

By Tim Vandenack

The Hutchinson News


tvandenack@hutchnews.com

DODGE CITY - As she ponders her fellow Latinos who have illegally crossed over from Mexico in search of jobs and a better life, Pilar Brise-o, a Dodge City native, bristles.


The retired hospital housekeeper, now 77, acknowledges that some are good people and hard workers. It's just that others, too many, seem insufficiently appreciative of the strides they have made here and burden the community with extra social costs.

"They come in here. They get all these goodies," said Brise-o, whose parents came from Mexico. "That's all they're doing here is manipulating the system."

A series of nationwide marches and protests last spring by undocumented Latinos and their backers in support of immigration reform evidenced a rousing of the Hispanic political consciousness. Southwest Kansas' sizable Latino population took part, and U.S. lawmakers - divided on the key question of whether to grant illegal immigrants a pathway to legal residency - continue to grapple with the issue.

For Brise-o and other U.S.-born Hispanics, however, many from an older generation, the showing only hardened their belief that undocumented immigrants, by and large, are no more than lawbreakers with little standing to demand change.

"There are no ifs, ands or buts about it, they're taking advantage of anything they can," said Catarino Amaro, another Dodge City native who, at 80, still toils at a meatpacking plant here. "If they can't get their (residency) papers to be like anybody else, send them back. I hate to say it."

Fred Rodriguez, meanwhile, contrasts the current wave of immigration with the experience of his parents, who came to Dodge City from Mexico in the 1920s, when there were jobs to be had building the railroad. Like Brise-o and Amaro, Rodriguez, now 76, grew up in the hardscrabble neighborhood known as the Village, where Dodge City's Hispanic community initially put down roots.

"They worked hard here, and they became American citizens," said Rodriguez, noting the 10-cent fee his father paid to enter the United States, legally. "They earned their citizenship and their right to be in this country by showing they were worthy."

On the other hand, he derisively alludes to "all these demonstrations with all these Mexican flags," referencing the protests of last spring, tinted abundantly with green, red and white, Mexico's colors. "They haven't paid their dues. They came in illegally. They broke the law."

'Like our grandparents'

Notwithstanding such criticism, most Latinos see illegal immigrants in a sympathetic, favorable light.

"They're like our grandparents," said Lydia Gonzales, a Garden City woman whose parents moved from Mexico to southwest Kansas in the early 1900s to work the railroads and beet fields that once dotted the area. "They come here for a better life for their families. And if you give them a chance, they will succeed."

Indeed, according to a survey released last week of 2,000 U.S. Latinos, both native- and foreign-born, by the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Hispanic Center:

l Some 72 percent of respondents - including 64 percent of the native-born Hispanics - think illegal immigrants help the economy by providing a low-cost source of labor. Another 21 percent - including 28 percent of the natives - see them as harming the economy by driving down wages.

l About 93 percent of respondents - including 90 percent of the natives - think illegal immigrants who have lived here at least five years should have a chance to become U.S. citizens. Just 5 percent - including 8 percent of natives - say none should be able to stay.

Gonzales, who has long championed the Hispanic cause, doesn't view last spring's protests as anything nefarious. Rather, the 68-year-old woman sees them as pleas from a humble, hardworking group just wanting to make an honest living.

Similarly, Paul Torrez, while insisting that immigrants legalize their status and follow U.S. laws and customs, doesn't come down too hard on the newcomers. Though he was born in Ford County and has lived most of his life in Dodge City, he's quick to note that his parents came here from Mexico in the early 1900s looking for a better life, just like today's inflows.

"There are a lot of good people; I have nothing bad to say about them," said Torrez, a retired construction worker. "I've been to Mexico several times, and I've seen how they live down there."

You Don't Speak For Me

Still, as illegal immigrant foes like Rodriguez show, an undercurrent simmers in the Hispanic community.

"We are not unified. We do not think alike. We are not on the same channel," said Rodriguez, a medical case manager.

Tapping into that, the Washington, D.C.-based Federation for American Immigration Reform formed a group this spring, You Don't Speak for Me, to give Hispanic critics of illegal immigration a platform. The reform group seeks a crackdown on illegal immigrants and tighter border controls.

"I am not against the race, I am against the actions, the way they behave," said Claudia Spencer, a You Don't Speak for Me leader from Vista, Calif., in the San Diego area.

She acknowledges the poverty in Mexico but says it's not up to the United States to fix the neighboring country's woes.

"Yes, they are poor, I'm not saying they're not," said Spencer, a native of Mexico who married a U.S. man and since has become a naturalized U.S. citizen. "But they don't have rights here. They should go to their own country and demand what they want."

The gripes among the southwest Kansas Hispanics are similar. The critics take umbrage at undocumented women accessing benefits for their U.S.-born children, local law enforcement having to deal with the crime brought on by immigrant inflows and bilingual accommodations in U.S. schools for Spanish-speaking children.

"They've got everything, don't they?" said Brise-o, recalling the second-class treatment she faced growing up as a Hispanic. "When I was going to school, we weren't able to talk Mexican. The (store) clerks would even stop and say, 'Don't talk in Spanish, talk in English.' "

Indeed, whatever the hardships immigrants face these days, critics like Brise-o and Rodriguez say they had it tougher, especially with the blatant racism of yore in southwest Kansas. They recall being banned from restaurants and the public swimming pool and being relegated to the balcony at the local theater, not to mention everyday sneers and slights from the Anglo population.

"These people coming in now want everything given to them without having earned it," Rodriguez said.


07/16/2006; 02:33:35 AM

I hope they keep letting people know that there are those that see whats happening and that they don't like any more than we do.