Thread: The retiree and what he might think about immigration

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3640268

The retiree and what he might think about immigration

Conor Friedersdorf, who is managing the Daily Bulletin's blog, or special Web site, on immigration issues. The blog is designed to provide a forum for opinions and information on immigration. The blog is at www.beyondbordersblog.com)

(Editor's note: This is a twice-weekly column written Conor Friedersdorf, who is managing the Daily Bulletin's blog, or special Web site, on immigration issues. The blog is designed to provide a forum for opinions and information on immigration.
Most older Americans talk politics differently from the way their children and grandchildren do.

After seven or eight decades on this Earth, they've seen a lot, so their opinions are based on observations more than abstract arguments.
A young man debating immigration will cite demographic facts and economic figures. "In California, population density is rising each year," he might say. "If we liberalize our immigration laws, the growth rate will only increase, and crime will increase with it."
An old man will offer an insight into human nature, or tell a story hoping to convey an underlying truth.
"When I was young we used to hunt rabbits where that new tract is going up," he might say. "Now there are so many people crowding together that there's no room for a peaceful life. I've seen a lot of places where people are packed together. Every time they just got more crowded, covered in graffiti and run down."
Many Americans -- older Americans particularly -- have cultural concerns about immigration. After a lifetime of observing this country, its culture, and its people, they find some changes today deeply troubling. They may join the conversation about how immigrants affect employment figures, or how illegal immigration has taxed the Department of Homeland Security.
Yet they've formed their opinions based on something more complex and intuitive. They take a lifetime of experiences, insights and observations. These coalesce into a worldview. That worldview affects their opinions on immigration; immigration affects their worldview, too.
Whether they are right or wrong, anyone who hopes to win converts or fashion a compromise in the immigration debate must understand this cohort of older voters made uneasy illegal immigration, and sometimes by legal immigration too. That brings us to today's "based-on-a-true-story" character: Harold is a white retiree who is kind to the Latina cashiers at the supermarket, loves his grandchildren profoundly and hates illegal immigration with a bitter passion. If you hooked him up to a truth machine and offered to put his grandkids through college in exchange for his blunt views on immigration, here's what he'd say:
"All my life I worked hard for my family so that they'd have better than I did. My wife and I skipped vacations and drove used cars to start a college fund for our sons. We cleaned our own house and cut our own grass. We could've cut corners, cheated here and there on our taxes, but we played the rules instead. We cut coupons. If an unexpected cost came up we went without something else. We did things by the book even when it didn't seem fair. "We would've liked three kids, but we settled for two. It took a while to save enough to have our first child. As the second one got to school-age he needed surgery that our insurance only covered half of, so we took out a loan and never did feel like we could afford a third child."
"Now I've got grandkids I'd like to help send to college. It costs more every year. Already I've had to put some of that money toward an emergency room visit for my wife. It didn't used to cost so much, but they say the illegals don't have medical insurance, so it drives up the cost for the rest of us.
"That's my beef with illegal immigration: it makes me think that those of us who play the rules just keep getting screwed. We must've been chumps to plan and save for a family, when these illegals have three, four, five kids that they can't afford. The kids get welfare too. So I missed out on trying for a girl so that I could pay for other people's kids that they can't afford? "Later these kids grow up and they want to go to college for free. They actually talk about that here: free tuition for illegal aliens! Are we a nation of laws or not? Do we want our grandkids growing up and seeing all around them that the way to get ahead is to break the rules? That's what Mexico is. The police stop you for a traffic ticket, they'll just take a bribe right there on the side of the road. Everything there is corrupt.
"And we're adding to it.
"We've made it so the people who play the rules and try to come here legally are still stuck in Tijuana. It's the people who break the rules that get ahead. How long can we keep taking all the Mexicans who don't mind breaking the law before we become more like Mexico? "Already we have these Mexican gangs, we have people working illegally, we have people buying fake documents, stealing people's identities. We have signs in Spanish, stores where they only speak Spanish.
"It's got to stop or our country will end up as lawless and corrupt as their country. Old guys like me who played the rules are going to die off. The young people will have learned all their lives that illegal isn't bad, it's OK. If you decide something is unfair, or you want a better life, just break the law, that's the way to get ahead. "I'm glad I won't be around to see it."

Thank You for posting that, IC. A very good perspective to take time to listen to.

The man is right.

My dad passed away on January 12th, 2001 and it sounds just like him. I have a father inlaw who is 84 years old.....came to America at age 9 months old from Sicily. He became a citizen when he joined the army during WWII. My father was in the Navy for 20 years...joined at 17 1/2 years old. Both of these men faught in the Pacific. My Dad would be so pissed off right now.

I use to be the lone voice in my family speaking out about Illegals all the way back to 1980. When I was a little girl in elementary school, I lived in Salinas, California........the Illegals during the 60's were very violent in the high schools way back then. The girls ran in gangs and had no problem jumping white girls in the bathrooms.......nothings changed. They are raised on hatred of the GRINGO and they are some of the biggest RACISTS out there.....even though they try to say otherwise.

Now I live in Modesto, California and the Illegal Mexican is everywhere around. The CRAP just follows them! The meth drug trade is everywhere. We even had teachers of Mexican descent arrested for running a big Mexican Mafia meth ring. When they say they aren't lazy....they are right. They will work.....at the same time they collect welfare..........at the same time they sell drugs. They don't tell their children to not steal........they just tell their children to not GET CAUGHT! It is all about bringing SHAME to the family. They could give a Rat's A$$ about our laws........everything is only about THEM!