U.S. Born Latinos Face Stereotyping

http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/2006 ... /101050066

U.S.-born Latinos face stereotyping
Brady McCombs, (Bio) bmccombs@greeleytrib.com
January 5, 2006

In Colorado, where the majority of illegal immigrants are from Latin American countries, all Latinos are sometimes mistakenly lumped into criticisms with illegal immigrants.

When a Latino commits a crime, the general population assumes he or she is an illegal immigrant, said Penny Gonzales-Soto, an immigration attorney with Catholic Charities Northern in Greeley.

"What does the general population do? Hispanic face on front page, and what is that attributed to -- immigrants," Gonzales-Soto said. "I mean, it just all comes together: brown face, Hispanic equals immigrant. So that's an injustice, throwing everybody into the same pot."

This reasoning was behind one criticism of a proposed resolution in support of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Greeley.

Latinos Unidos, a group born from opposition to the idea, said blaming illegal immigrants for methamphetamine, violent crimes and drug problems would cause stereotyping of all Latinos.

Perhaps for this reason, U.S.-born Latinos tend to be less supportive of illegal immigrants.

According to a 2005 study by the Pew Hispanic Center, 76 percent of foreign-born Latinos believe illegal immigrants help the economy by providing low-cost labor rather than hurting the economy by driving wages down. By comparison, 55 percent of U.S.-born Latinos believe that statement.

When asked in this same survey if they favor laws that deny illegal immigrants drivers licenses, 60 percent of U.S.-born Latinos said yes, while 29 percent of foreign-born Latinos said yes.

Gonzales-Soto also said school districts need to be careful not to assume every Spanish-speaking child is an illegal immigrant.

"Because a child speaks only Spanish when they enter kindergarten or first grade doesn't mean they're not a U.S. citizen," Gonzales-Soto said. "It just means their parents don't speak English, and that's the language they learned at home."

-- Brady McCombs

Gonzales-Soto also said school districts need to be careful not to assume every Spanish-speaking child is an illegal immigrant.

"Because a child speaks only Spanish when they enter kindergarten or first grade doesn't mean they're not a U.S. citizen," Gonzales-Soto said. "It just means their parents don't speak English, and that's the language they learned at home."


of course not- we assume they are anchor babies- born in the united states intentionally to get american citizenship. we also assume the cost of their being born in the united states was placed upon american taxpayers- the legal ones-
we also know that when these spanish speaking kids go to kindergarten - the federal goverment holds public schools , funded largely at the local and state level, responsible for their learning english and fine local schools when the kids dont learn english quickly enough.

I'm sorry, if I was surrounded by a gazillion Polish people (bad example, they take meticulous care of their property in most cases). OK, then a gazillion Chinese....Australian??? No. I'm surrounded by a gazillion Hispanic 3rd world immigrants. Even the African refugees we support from our church have done better than these guys. I'm sorry if I can't distinguish between a legal or illegal, but I know that there are somewhere between 11 and 20 million illegal Hispanic immigrants in the U.S. What am I supposed to think? I'm a racist because I can't distinguish? And the police aren't allowed to ask CRIMINALLY detained people for their papers? (it's racist, you know) Then LEGAL Hispanic immigrants should band with us to oppose the invasion! Unfortunately, race seems to figure into it and so I'm the bad girl for lumping them all together. I don't care what you call me, it's what I see and live every day. Maybe if the MAJORITY of hispanics came here through the legal channels and were then ENTITLED to be here, I wouldn't make this assumption. Is it just me?

nope - this is why it's taken so long for americans to fight back- cause we have to be so damned sensitive-
my theme song is - when the government enforces immigration laws and shows itself to have some spine, then I will assume latinos are here legally.
oregon did not have a latino population( of any consequence) until the invasion began-