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DEBATE OVER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AND THEIR IMPACT o*n BLACKS GETS INTENSE

San Bernardino

By Chris Levister

Around sunrise o*n a chilly morning Wade Brooks and a knot of other day laborers waited for work o*n a scruffy San Bernardino corner. In the shadow of Home Depot, Brooks was a rare sight among the men waiting anxiously chatting away in Spanish: a Black handyman in a labor pool dominated by undocumented Latino workers.

Like most mornings the 28-year-old father of two watches a parade of trucks and vans whisk away Latino workers leaving him to wait. Brooks a painter and handyman opens a plastic bag full of ripe California strawberries. “They’ll pick strawberries for slave wages. They’ll do back breaking jobs for low pay,” said Brooks. “They came over here, in a sense to replace us.” But he had no hard feelings. “Me as a Black man around Latinos, I get along with them better than some in my own culture.”

Several blocks east where more than two dozen day laborers waited for work outside a Labor Ready center an intense debate reflected passions over crackdown o*n undocumented workers versus tolerance. African-American Marlon Harris arrives at the center at 5 o’clock every morning. “Illegal immigration is the greatest threat to African-Americans since slavery,” said Harris. “Employers wanting to keep wages low are feasting o*n a labor ready pool of 11 million illegals. Waiting for jobs for hours and working for $7.10 an hour maybe two to three days out of the week - is preposterous,” said Harris.

Mexican-American Mario Saucedo was sympathetic to the Black workers’ frustration. “We’re all in the same boat. “It’s the system’s fault, not Mexicans. Everybody deserves a living wage.”

When New Jersey native Anthony Salter complained that Latino immigrants were taking jobs from Blacks, Juan *** , a 27 year old undocumented worker retorted that maybe Blacks aren’t “hungry enough” to find work. “It’s easy to find a job anywhere!” he said. “I can find work in o*ne day driving, warehousing, construction. These people are just lazy,” he said referring to Blacks.

Salter countered, “This debate is not about race, it’s about preserving our birthright and demanding fair wages. Working for slave wages is not an option for us (Blacks),” he said. “The Mexicans come here demanding their rights. What don’t they understand about illegal? In California the illegal problem is out of control. It’s the new Mexico.”

For Jerome Williams of Compton the job dilemma is a catch 22. “I’m o*n parole. The state says go to SB find a job or go back to prison. You can’t win.”

“They give most of the jobs to the Latinos.” 18-year-old Stacey Bennett says Blacks’ beliefs o*n immigration are colored by America’s history of slavery and exclusion. “I was born over here. My ancestors shed blood and sweat. I can’t get work but the Mexicans can – it ain’t right. To get right down to it, they are stealing our jobs and should be sent home,” said Bennett.

SB resident Nathaniel Carr disagrees with Mexico’s president Vicente Fox who claims immigrants are taking jobs Americans don’t want. “That’s bunk.” He recalls working at a home construction jobsite in Indio where he was the o*nly African-American out of nearly 200 laborers. “It’s propaganda. Skilled laborers are being phased out and replaced with low-skill, low-wage workers. “$7.10 per hour pay is not enough to support o*ne person, let alone a family,” he said.

“To African-Americans – descendants of slaves - illegal immigration is a slap in the face. Our ancestors were brought here in chains and kicked to the curb then and we’re getting kicked again,” says 32-year-old Eugene Ray who last month lost a construction job after the company he worked for hired a Latino site supervisor. He says despite perfect attendance and exemplary work he and other Blacks were pushed out. “He fired 5 Blacks and hired 7 Latinos. Undocumented workers have a lock o*n all the entry level jobs.”

“We are the o*nes getting labeled lazy and no count and all we’ve been doing since we got off those slave ships is working,” said Ray.

During the noisy debate over illegal immigration arguments about “fairness” and “compassion” have filled the air. But for low-income, low-skilled people such as Barbara Braswell, a disproportionate number of them Black – another idea, “competition” confronts them nearly every day. “It’s all about the money. Most African-Americans are not willing to work for slave wages.” She points out traditionally Black jobs and Black neighborhoods now belong to Latinos who favor their own.

“They sneak across the border. Move in with 10 to 15 people, speak o*nly Spanish, work for low wages and send billions back to Mexico.” She says most small employers don’t check immigration papers. “If you are a warm body and speak Spanish in San Bernardino, chances are you’ll have little trouble getting hired.”

Yet despite seeing themselves as being increasingly displaced by migrants from Mexico and Central America, many Blacks like Jesse James Nichols, George Miller – and the leaders who claim to represent them – tend to have a favorable view of immigrants. “Mexicans are good decent people. They come here looking for a better life. Mexico is a corrupt nation from top to bottom. Mexico is not our friend, but Mexican people are not our enemy,” said Miller.

“It’s how you position yourself,” argues Nichols, “Low skills translate into low paying jobs. Don’t blame the system. It’s survival of the fittest out here.”

In a recent poll by the Pew Research Center and the Pew Hispanic Center, nearly a quarter of Black respondents said they had personally lost a job to an immigrant or knew someone who had. Less than a fifth of white respondents said that.

“Years ago, there weren’t many Hispanics here,” said Dwayne Fairley. Everybody got to make a living.” Kenneth Anderson laments the so-called Spanish speaking cliques that bypass Black handymen in favor of hiring their own people is widespread, tolerated and will o*nly get worse.

Latinos, Anderson said have the reputation true or false, of being better workers. “It’s all a part of the political spin. Black people built this country. Mexican immigrants are the new slaves.”

Beverly Knowlton of the NAACP sees another side of the immigration issue - divide and rule. Knowlton says African-Americans need to remember history. Back in the 1940’s she says corporate America used Black workers as scabs to undermine efforts to unionize. She says o*nly by joining together did the working class make gains. She says the same is true with illegal immigrants.

“Blacks and Latinos must form a united front. The larger the numbers the more powerful the influence,” she says. Last month, for example the NAACP issued a news release calling o*n Congress to approve a comprehensive immigration package that allows immigrants to legally work and become citizens, mirroring calls by the National Council of La Raza and the League of Latin American Citizens.

Still to Barbara Braswell and many of the Black laborers waiting for work in this 5 ‘o’clock morning chill, illegal immigration boils down to ‘They’re taking our jobs.’ “It’s not the burden o*n schools. It’s not the burden o*n health care. It’s not a fight for supremacy. It comes down to simple economics,” she says. “When I see a construction van drive in this lot and load up a bunch of Spanish guys while Blacks look o*n, it comes down to taking milk out of my baby’s mouth.”