Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

May 1, 2010 By Fausta

CNN’s surprised that people like me don’t support illegal immigration

At CNN: Some Hispanic Americans hope law deters illegal immigration

But Schwartz and some other Americans with Hispanic backgrounds who spoke with CNN say the problem with illegal immigrants isn’t just the jobs they take. It’s how they’re overrunning towns like Phoenix, turning them into “mini-Mexicos” with their trash-filled streets and loud music, according to Schwartz.

Of equal concern to her friend, Martha Payan, is how she claims illegal immigrants “fleece” government coffers by collecting welfare on multiple children, or vanish without a trace after an arrest or a hospital visit.

The two women, who became acquainted through various demonstrations in the metro Phoenix area, met Thursday to discuss their views outside the Maricopa County Municipal building, as more backlash against the controversial immigration law continued to flood the city.

Notice the “some” in the headline, and the “more” in the article.

What CNN can’t figure out is that Latinos in the USA who have worked their way to legally live here in accordance of US law, and who have taken the trouble of learning the language and the customs, and are fully integrated into American society are not happy to see people who willfully violate the law be granted special treatment and issued instant victim status:

Anna Gaines, a Mexican-born U.S. citizen, says she took up the fight against illegal immigration after becoming disillusioned by the attitudes of immigrant families that she witnessed as a teacher in the Paradise Valley School District in Paradise, Arizona.

“Many of these families were having one child after another just to earn a paycheck from the U.S. government and they didn’t care about their children’s education,” says Gaines, the controversial founder of American Citizens United, a grass-roots organization known for its extreme views on immigration enforcement. “They didn’t want to contribute, just take.”

Gaines, who came to the United States as a nurse on a work visa during the Vietnam War and met her current husband, says she thinks immigrants have changed over the years.

“There used to be a level of dignity and self-respect. They were hard-working people who wanted to contribute to American society because it was better than where they came from,” says Gaines, a petite woman in her 70s. “But our government has been giving them handouts for so long that now they expect them.”

Digger’s realm has more, on Puerto Ricans like myself,

Then there are my Puerto Rican brothers and sisters. Puerto Ricans are US Citizens at birth. Many who come to the mainland United States reject the title of “Hispanic” and claims by Hispanic groups that opposition to illegal immigration is a racist plot.

By the way, people from Latin American countries come in all races: White, black, Asian, or indigenous – many of us have extended families with all of the above. Being from Latin America doesn’t mean you belong to one racial group.

I have said before, and will continue to emphasize, “Hispanic” is a victimology construct. There is no such thing as “Hispanic” outside the USA: once each one of us LATINOS go back to our country of origin, we call ourselves Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Mexicans, or whatever.

Latino – in the broader sense of the word – may be used on a generic (and faceless) group of people whose native tongue is derived from Latin – such as French, Rumanian, Italian, Portuguese, and yes, Spanish. Additionally, there are indigenous peoples in Latin America who do not speak Spanish, some of whom have immigrated to the US.

You can even make a case that the term “Latinos” is vague enough as to be meaningless. What does it matter to Mexican authorities whether you come from a Latin American country IF you are in Mexico illegally? Not one bit.

The fact remains that Chileans have darn little in common with Mexicans, for instance.

And yes, I’ve been told, “You don’t even look Puerto Rican,” here in liberal Princeton by liberals who are shocked that I don’t toe the ideology line.

Post re-edited to add an omitted sentence.

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Filed Under: illegal immigration, immigration, Mexico Tagged With: Arizona, Fausta's blog

Comments

  1. Kate says

    May 1, 2010 at 10:54 am

    Fausta, I’m with you on this one. I came to the US when I was young, and I came here legally. It took a while for me to get my citizenship, but in the time I was waiting, I realized the importance of a culture which respects laws, rewards hard work, and is not a respecter of persons. Why is it so hard for people to understand that what the new Arizona legislation seeks to do, is merely enforce the federal law already on the books?
    I’m about as pro-immigrant as they come; but do so in a legal way.
    And for those who don’t know, I am originally from Colombia. Wasn’t exactly a walk in the park when I left in the 80s.

  2. Gringo says

    May 1, 2010 at 5:33 pm

    But Schwartz and some other Americans with Hispanic backgrounds who spoke with CNN say the problem with illegal immigrants isn’t just the jobs they take. It’s how they’re overrunning towns like Phoenix, turning them into “mini-Mexicos” with their trash-filled streets and loud music, according to Schwartz.
    While I am not Hispanic, I have worked in Latin America and am fluent enough in Spanish for Hispanics here in the US to call me “mojado,” as a term of endearment. One time Mexicans had littered a park near my home with beer bottles and a mattress. (It was a Mexican neighborhood. Who else would have done it?)I wrote a politically incorrect message on the mattress,one that would have gotten liberals all a flutter, had they understood Spanish. While the message may have been politically incorrect, it got results. The beer bottles and mattress got removed.

  3. GM Roper says

    May 1, 2010 at 9:44 pm

    Living only a few miles from the Mexican border in an area decidedly Tex-Mex in flavor I speak to many, many Hispanics who are aghast at the illegal’s in this country. The exception of course are the Politicos. And all of them I might add are Democrats.

  4. newton says

    May 2, 2010 at 12:42 am

    Exactly!

    Some of the elites seem to think that we must be supportive of lawlessness and illegals just because of being of the same “raza”. That is wrong in so many levels.

    It is the same BS as the belief that we were going to cheer Bill Clinton for pardoning the FALN terrorists because he was “sympathetic to us Puerto Ricans.” After they had bombed a bar in Manhattan’s financial district and killed people some years before, Democrats expected for us to call the bombers “heroes”? That was an insult to my intelligence and my morals.

    It was such action, and many more like that, that made me repudiate the antics of the Left elites and the Democrats. I have lost all respect towards the Clintons and the Left elites in general.

    Today, whenever I hear someone say “No one is an illegal!”, I wonder if they really have their heads put together. They obviously think we are homogeneous our thinking. They have become believers in their own stereotypes about us – which shows their actual narrow thinking than their own “open-mindedness”.

  5. freddypr says

    May 13, 2010 at 2:15 am

    Illegals mostly Mexicans here in Chicago hate Puerto Ricans but when when there rights are infringed upon then they say we Hispanics they only care about themselves.We speak English they refuse.We socialize with all ethnic groups they refuse.We fly American Flags on days that warrant they refuse.We eat Mexican food but they refuse to even try Puerto Rican food. At Church they pray for Immigrants to find work we pray for all who have lost there jobs and are looking to find a job.We passed the test to have the privelage of driving they paid $ to get there licence. We took multiple test to be a carpenter and had to proof we graduated from high school they did not have to. They get mad if we do not speak Spanish and if we do they try to correct us into speaking like do but i adamantly refuse to say coche to a car.I could go on and on but i think i have made my point.

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