Thread: When Illegal Immigrants Are Your Friends

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/opinion ... 254060.htm




When Illegal Immigrants Are Your Friends



By Domenico Maceri
“You’re going to take a woman who has been here 13 years, worked hard, paid taxes, raised a family, and you’re going to send them back to Mexico?” asked Henry Morgan, county prosecutor in Arkadelphia, a city located in Clark County, Arkansas. Morgan was talking about Juanita, an illegal immigrant from Mexico. Immigration agents planning a raid in an Arkadelphia poultry plant asked Morgan for help. Agents figured out he was not going to cooperate and acted without informing him. They arrested 119 Mexican workers, acting on information about documents fraud.

Morgan was not the only one sympathetic to undocumented workers. A number of other people in town helped some of those who were arrested to get them to remain in the country. Why would people help illegals? Several of the people arrested in the raid had been in Arkansas for a number of years and had developed relationships with local residents. Morgan had met Oscar, Juanita’s son, and became impressed with the teen-ager and gave him a job.

One of Juanita’s daughters had also established a link with another Arkansas family. When the Mexican youngster first began school knowing no English, her teacher requested that an American girl help her. Eventually, the kids' friendship involved the parents. Dr. Wesley Kluck, the American girl's father, became close friends with Juanita and her kids. The Klucks took some of Juanita's kids on their family vacations. When Juanita's oldest daughter was accepted at a private university, the Klucks helped find money for her tuition. Soon after the raid, the Klucks were shocked to discover that Juanita was in the group of those about to be deported. So they acted on her behalf.

Of the 119 people detained in the raid, only seven were not deported. Juanita was one of them. The Klucks and other prominent people in the town where she lived wrote letters of support. Dr. Kluck even contacted the Governor, a college classmate, to assist her. She will have a hearing and might be able to remain in the U.S. if a judge determines that she has no criminal record and has American-born kids who would suffer “extremely unusual hardships” if she were to be deported.

The friendship expressed toward undocumented workers in Arkadelphia is unusual considering the anger in many parts of the U.S. about our inability to control the border. Some of the anger comes to the surface by means of local and state legislation which attempts to limit whatever rights undocumented workers might have. The Georgia and Colorado state legislatures recently passed strict laws that target undocumented workers and those who might help them. And of course the House of Representatives passed a bill in December of last year which changes illegal entry into the U.S. from a civil offense to a criminal one. In essence, the estimated 12 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. would become criminals if the U.S. Senate were to approve the House bill. Even Americans who might help them could become guilty of a crime.

The anger toward undocumented workers is often visible in letters to the editors of many American newspapers. Letter writers blame undocumented workers for many of the country social and economic problems. These include lowering wages for American workers. Even some people in Arkadelphia, in fact, believe that the absence of undocumented workers might force the poultry plant to raise wages which would become more palatable to Americans. That has not happened.

The company has reduced production by 20% because of lack of employees. The “welcome mat” of Arkadelphia thus is a significant contrast to the prevalent animosity toward undocumented workers. But even in Arkadelphia not everyone agrees with supporting illegal immigrants. Resident Marta Dixon is one of those who cannot understand why people would help illegals. Probably because they see human beings and she sees only lawbreakers.

Domenico Maceri, Ph.D., UC Santa Barbara, teaches foreign languages at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, Calif.



dmaceri@gmail.com

10-24-2006 22:04


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The Klucks and other prominent people in the town where she lived wrote letters of support.

There you have it!! These people are NOT affected by Illegals. They live in their own wall-offed world and let the rest of us suffer the consequences. What do they care? It's their nannies and gardeners. They remind me of the Georgians (on the TV special) that were being served at their mansion by a flock of illegals while hosting a party for all the mucky-mucks. The uppidity attitude of these people was so obvious that it reminded me of slave owners. Only the times and faces have changed, but not the attitudes!

The Klucks took some of Juanita's kids on their family vacation.





I don't feel bad for Juanita even if Juanita was in this country for 20 years. Juanita is an "illegal alien" Juanita has been violating this country's law.

The transcript mentions Juanita's daughter and son, but then it says that Dr. Klucks took some of Juanita's kids on vacation. Some? How many "anchor babies" Juanita had in 13 years, 6, or more? And Juanita's taxes contribution working in a chicken factory pay to give education to all those children? So how this country benefits by having "hard working" Juanita here having "anchor babies"?) We should tell every hard working American that don't have Health-insurance about the good samaritan Dr. Klucks, probably he would take care of them at no cost when they need a doctor? Because Juanita's "anchor babies" are cover by medicaid right? They are taking away benefits that belong to hard working Americans.

I don't feel bad for Juanita even if Juanita was in this country for 20 years. Juanita is an "illegal alien" Juanita has been violating this country's law.

That's one of the points that is so crazy with Bush's proposal. The longer they've managed to escape our laws....they get rewarded. This makes a lot of sense if you're trying to enforce the law, doesn't it?

The more stories I read like this the more frustrated and angry I become. These businesses wanted the cheap labor rather than pay Americans a decent wage. So they hung a "welcome" sign out and in came all of the illegals while our own government looked the other way. For decades it was known that our immigration laws were not going to be enforced. This caused these illegals to come in and build their houses in the sand.

Now, the issue is reaching critical mass and American people are fed up and want the laws respected and enforced. But, the laws have been ignored for so long that the illegals have a sense of entitlement. They are outraged that we are actually demanding that our laws be enforced because they got away with it for so long. Not only them, but those who benefitted from the illegals such as the affluent and the businesses who employ them.

I have debated with pro-amnesty people, and most of them share this characteristic: they are either directly benefitting from illegal immigration, or they have not been adversely affected by it. They all have this air of moral superiority about them because it is much more satisfying to them to claim that they are compassionate towards the third world "other" than to worry about plain old American citizens who are suffering the effects of rampant illegal immigration. It reminds me in a way of these celebrities who go to third world countries to adopt children when there are so many American children who need good homes.

I could turn this around and say that Americans who want their jobs back, the wages of those jobs to rise back to where they can support their families with dignity, their neighborhoods to return to civility, are human beings also.

Domenico Maceri, Ph.D., UC Santa Barbara, teaches foreign languages at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, Calif.

More than likely, the author of the article teaches Spanish. I know there are many Hispanic-Americans, some here on ALIPAC, that don't support illegal immigration, but I've yet to figure out those that do. I don't care if your skin color is yellow, black, white, brown, or red, in the interest of our children and grandchildren, we should all be fighting this battle together. Those people that actually benefit from illegal immigration is small in camparison to those of us that don't Besides that, benefit or not, illegal immigrants have broken the law and should suffer the consequences of their actions. People like Juanita who have been here 13 years should pay a higher price than those that have only been here a short while. To allow her to stay simply because she has been here 13 years is the same as rewarding her based on her ability to avoid detection by law enforcement. Sorry, a lapse of time does not make illegal immigration a non-punishable crime.

If these people were so interested in this particular family as friends,then why did they not encourage the woman to make herself along with her children legal?

Why did they allow this law breaking to go on? My son is friends with a boy here, super nice kid, but he told my son he remembers crossing the border, at night with his older siblings and parents. He loves America, likes American rock music, likes American food, wants to stay here, and the sad part is that if his family gets deported, he has to go, his parents have caused this potentially sad situation on him.

But still the laws need to be respected. I hope the people who are good people will do what is right and make themselves legal, it can be done. America wants those who are good, but not when they are breaking the laws.

I do always feel most sorry for the kids. It is a shame the parents chose to do things the wrong way, it hurts the kids.

If this well to do family thinks so much of this woman and he children, then they should see if they can sponsor her to become legal. What better way to show their friendship to her. Makes you wonder why all of this time they have not. Lack of respect for our laws? Lack of respect for their fellow Americans feelings? I think both. They were comfortable with the status quo and it was not affecting them.

Someone please tell me if I'm wrong. I have a problem understanding those politicians that say this country is humanitarian, and therefore they cannot deport 12 million illegal aliens, this means that they will deport some, and some would be rewarded? So is that humanitarian? To me all of them violated the law, and have committed all sort of crimes. To me saying that they came to this country looking for a better life, and make 3,4,5, and more "anchor babies" is a crime committed against American Citizens, because those kids are the ones taking the fenefits away from Americans. Our system give those kids free Heath-care, and the parents.

My neighbor is 63, she was born in this country, her and her husband never went on vacacion anywhere, because they prefered to buy a little piece of real estate so they could have a little extra income besides social security when they retired. They own two apartments, in one they live, and they rent the other one which gives them an income of $400.00 a month. They are living from the husband's social security, and her partial S.Sec. which she started to collect at 62, and the $400.00 from the apt. The husband has Medicare, but not a supplemental Insurance, she is not cover by any insurance, and can't have Medicare because she is not 65. They try to buy full Health insurance for her, and a supplemental for the husband, and the cheapest one they were offered was $800. 00 a month, not covering everything. These two people worked all their lives for this country, and the only flag they wave is the U.S. flag. If anything happens to these people, and have to go to a hospital, that apartment they have rented, will be taking away from them, they would be force to pay the bill. With their income, they can't apply for Medicaid, and their income does not give them to pay the high cost of an insurance. There are million people in this kind of a situation in this country, and those illegals come here to to viva their countries, all they care about this country is about how they can exploit it, and get benefits loyal Americans don't get? This is very unfair, this is not being humanitarian, this is the worst case of unfairness anyone can committ.

Originally Posted by AmericanElizabeth

If these people were so interested in this particular family as friends,then why did they not encourage the woman to make herself along with her children legal?

Why did they allow this law breaking to go on? My son is friends with a boy here, super nice kid, but he told my son he remembers crossing the border, at night with his older siblings and parents. He loves America, likes American rock music, likes American food, wants to stay here, and the sad part is that if his family gets deported, he has to go, his parents have caused this potentially sad situation on him.

But still the laws need to be respected. I hope the people who are good people will do what is right and make themselves legal, it can be done. America wants those who are good, but not when they are breaking the laws.

I do always feel most sorry for the kids. It is a shame the parents chose to do things the wrong way, it hurts the kids.

If this well to do family thinks so much of this woman and he children, then they should see if they can sponsor her to become legal. What better way to show their friendship to her. Makes you wonder why all of this time they have not. Lack of respect for our laws? Lack of respect for their fellow Americans feelings? I think both. They were comfortable with the status quo and it was not affecting them.

AmericanElizabeth, I don't feel bad for any of them, I don't care how nice they could be, they are not really that nice, because they are taking away what they have not earned, they are taking advantage from this country's citizens that have to pay higher and higher taxes to support all those children we didn't make. Trust me, I know many of those people, and many have left in their countries homes that they owned, is just that they want more, and more. I don't blame anyone for wanting more, and more, but not at someone else's expense.

I would never sponsor anyone who came to this country knowing that was violating the law, and has been abusing the system. Believe me, there are millions of loyal people to this country that need help. What happens with all those people is that they don't want to work in their countries. There is an Spanish woman in the Spanish Forums writing from Mexico, and she says that she raised two daughters, and took care of her invalid husband, that she had to work very hard, but that the two daughters today are professionals. She says that are towns in Mexico left almost empty, that all the people came here, that there was nothing wrong with the kind of life they were having there, but they want more, so they came here. That the situation in Mexico is not as bad as those people that come here make it look, that it is true that they make less money there, but that life is not as expensive as here.

Also I want to say, that many Americans really believe what pro-illegals say about illegals being exploited, how many million Americans work for the minimun salary? No illegal works for less than the minimun salary, that's not true. And many illegals have very good positions in good companies, no one knows they are illegal, but they are.

Its just nuts ...