THURSDAY APRIL 12, 2007
Last modified: Thursday, April 12, 2007 8:51 AM CDT



Coming to America


Willing to do what needs to be done, Mexican ‘illegals’ fill employment void

By Darlene Ramos, Correspondent

As a community grows, so does its diversity.

Dunn County’s current Hispanic growth offers a curious anomaly: It is here, but we can learn little about it firsthand.

Because illegal or undocumented workers make up a good part of the growth, one natural response is to discreetly look the other way.

Another response is to object, as many are doing on a national scale. Many objectors hold the view that the very act of an “illegal” taking American work lowers the whole workplace bar. Wages and labor conditions are compromised for everyone, they say.

Conversely, many American business owners nationally are supportive of reform that would allow Mexicans to fill positions legally. These employers maintain that Mexican nationals will not only stay in positions repeatedly vacated by American citizens, they do the work well and as if their very futures depended on it.

Getting the job done

In Dunn County, competition with illegals in the workplace has not been an issue. Illegals are employed mostly on the farms, doing work many farmers persist, “no one else will do.”

Whether statements like this are true or not, for this article neither employers nor their illegal workers were willing to be identified.

Additionally, it proved a challenge to get open discourse from citizens/taxpayers about personal attitudes toward undocumented local workers who may be “using the system” without appropriately paying into it.

Farmer-to-Farmer friend

Jody Slocum is a local Boyceville resident who has befriended the Hispanic farm workers. She is familiar with the culture and language through her travels with the Farmer-to-Farmer organization, a Wisconsin group that helps ensure fair trade prices to Latin American coffee growers.

“What people don’t think about is that many undocumented workers pay into the system to the same degree that many American citizens do,” Slocum explained. “Obviously, they buy goods and services and pay sales taxes like any one else. But what is really significant is that many times an illegal will provide whatever an employer needs, including a Social Security or tax identifying number that he (the illegal) will never see the benefit of — but some American will, down the line.”

She also pointed out that although illegals do at times rely on public health services and even hospitals for emergencies, so do many Americans who are underinsured or not insured at all. And because Mexican citizens are not accustomed to social services in their own country, they are not easily prone to call upon “free” public services in a land where most fear deportation as a possible consequence.

Personal story

Objectors have argued in national forums that persons who have crossed our borders illegally should not in any case have the same rights and first considerations as do our American citizens.

Louise Ruiz, this writer’s own mother, has a story to tell about this. Her husband, Rudy (my dad), was of Mexican descent, but born and raised in Orange County, Calif. As a young man, Rudy served honorably in the United States Marines, finishing his service in the latter months after the bombing at Pearl Harbor.

In his later years, Rudy developed heart failure and was many times in need of clinic and hospital care.

During one frantic episode, Rudy and Louise waited miserably long minutes in an emergency room. Waiting their turn was agonizing — both suspected a heart attack and that the elapsing moments could be Rudy’s final ones.

Just as Louise was contemplating a dire request that her husband be looked at immediately, another couple entered the room. The woman approached the attendant and did exactly what Louise had been on the verge of doing.

Louise admits to this day she has no idea what their medical circumstances were, but when she realized the woman was succeeding, her own defenses sparked. She believed without hesitation that the man and woman were not citizens, and as politely as could be managed, used her bilingual skills to confirm this.

Colliding considerations

In the urgency of the moment, Louise spoke right up. Pointedly, she questioned the attendant: “Do you mean to tell me that my husband, who is an American veteran and was in this emergency room first, will have to receive care after someone who is not a documented American citizen?”

My father was seen first, but this true story illustrates that not all objections to use of public services by illegal immigrants comes from persons of Anglo- or other ethnic origins. It is a complex set of colliding considerations that judges the ramifications of illegal entry into America.

Americans’ innate generous nature yearns to yet be welcoming, but immigration in 2007 is a whole different ball of wax than it was several decades ago.

But for the grace of God

My husband, Ramon Ramos, is a lifelong American citizen. He is a Dunn County resident and AFL-CIO trade union member.

He has enjoyed the rights of citizenship and those of his union establishment, but is keenly aware of his “there-but-for-the-grace-of God-go-I” status.

“As individuals, it is human nature to think ‘me first’ when it comes to things that affect the ones we love,” Ray recently observed. “If we are American taxpayers, we want our American children to be educated first, medically treated first, have first chance at jobs, and so on. What seems to get left out of this very understandable view is that when we wrestle with ‘doing the right thing,’ we maybe need to remember that God didn’t create borders, people did. This creates a real struggle of the conscience, probably one that none of us can totally win.

“If we can’t be totally supportive of the illegals, we could at least try to imagine WHY they struggle so hard to come here,” he continued. “Why are they willing to work so hard and still live somewhat in hiding? Most of them don’t have the honest chance of getting ahead that earlier era immigrants did. They are willing to go through what it takes to get here and still live in ways that wouldn’t satisfy most Americans. And if for no other reason than that they need to go unnoticed, they are probably more law-abiding than some.”

Deportation is expensive

Dunn County Sheriff Dennis Smith remarked for this article that his department has had few concerns with the immigrants and criminal behavior.

“The couple of concerns we’ve had, we did contact the INS [federal Immigration and Naturalization Service] about,” he said. “In essence, we were told the funds are not there to deport individuals until there is something more than suspicion on our end. Mostly, the people are here to work, and the problems have not called for deportation.”

Smith has at times enlisted UW-Stout teacher and coach, Hector Cruz, for his language interpretation skills when dealing with Spanish-speaking individuals. (Cruz related his family’s “American Dream” story in part one.)

“My dad was as much a social worker as anyone could be,” Cruz said about the role modeling he grew up with that influences him to this day. “He helped greatly with communications between Spanish-speaking men in Wisconsin and the American farmers they worked for. He put in long, hard hours toward this end. Now, whenever I see or hear a Spanish-speaking person, I have a natural longing to communicate with them.”

He added that he has a vision of Dunn County residents someday enjoying organized activities that will provide enlightenment into the Mexican culture.

“The warmth of the people is beautiful,” Cruz said. “They are very much all about family and, given the chance, are very community-oriented also. They have such a sense of extending good will ... and of course everyone knows how wonderful the food and music is!”

How Dunn County residents choose to welcome the new immigrants remains to be seen. Much will hinge on the level of influx, the burden local taxpayers feel they are assuming, and the immigrants’ own assimilation into their less-than-perfect new world.


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