A Nation of Immigrants

This week Congress is scheduled to vote on an amendment to the immigration bill.  I will admit that I haven’t really kept up with all the issues pertaining to immigration so I’m hardly in a position to offer sage advice.  It would seem, however, that a great many others who are in a similar situation are offering their two cents.  So I feel secure in adding mine.  My advice about this is simple – leave folks alone and let folks in.

That was quick, wasn’t it?  Why? You might be asking, should the US let folks in and leave the folks already here alone?  Simple answer – we invited folks here.  You’re probably asking the next question of when did we invite folks here.  Simple answer again – the lady in the New York harbor invites people here and has been since she was placed in the harbor in October of 1886.  Lady Liberty has inspired millions to come to this country declaring:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

These words, taken from The New Colossus, a poem written by American poet Emma Lazurus, are engraved on a bronze plaque mounted inside the lower level of the statue. These words have been echoed around the world.  These words give hope to people everywhere, people who feel as though they can actually have the life they dream of if they could only have a chance.  These words offer people all over that chance.  How could we make such an offer and then renege on the promise?

It never ceases to amaze me when I hear some people say “they” should go back to their own country.  If that’s the case, almost everyone I know should be on a plane or boat going back to their ancestral countries.  This country is a country of immigrants.  How else can we explain celebrating St. Patrick’s Day (Irish) or Octoberfest (German), Bastille Day (France) or Columbus Day (Italian)?  In Chicago, city offices and schools are closed on Pulaski Day (Polish).  We spend an inordinate amount of time celebrating holidays that historically celebrate our connection to other countries and we don’t give it another thought.  Why on earth would we deny others the opportunity to have what we ourselves have benefitted from for decades?

Besides when you think about all those immigrants who came here by boat, what’s the harm in allowing people to come to America by land?  After all, those Mexicans crossing the border are simply coming back home.  They don’t have to board a plane or a boat to get here.  They walk.

Coming home? you say.  Yes, coming home.  In the 1800’s Mexico extended into many areas that are part of the US including Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and parts of Texas and California.  Much land was lost as a result of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848).  Since that time, the U.S. government has been pushing native Mexicans further and further south and west.  The generations that follow have been answering the call to return to the land of their ancestors and stake their claim in land that was lost through no fault of their own.

The other argument I hear often is they infamous “they.”  You’ve heard it.  They are taking our jobs.  They are overrunning the country.  They come here and get benefits they don’t deserve.  They don’t pay taxes.  They have anchor babies.  They should not be allowed to be citizens.  They are dirty.  They have too many children.  They are responsible for us not getting fair wages.  They will do anything for money.  They, they, they.

I’ve heard it time and time again.  And my answer to the “they” is equally simple.  So what!  If “they” are taking our jobs, “they” are doing the jobs so many of us don’t want to do.  Many Americans believe they themselves are too good to bus tables in a restaurant.  Americans no longer want to work as gardeners or landscapers.  Americans will not work as day laborers or work in a sweaty, dank warehouse.  But “they” are.  Because “they” know what it is like to live without, be without and “they” are willing to work hard and long to make a living. 

I can’t begin to tell you how often I’ve heard the “they” argument and then asked the person making the argument if he/she would be willing to work as a bus boy or day laborer.  The answer is always an emphatic “hell, no.”  “Why should I?”  “I’m from here.  Why should I work for less money?”  Why indeed.  Maybe you should work because you need to and pride doesn’t get the bills paid.  That sense of entitlement means nothing when rent is due or when your children are hungry.  It is that sense of entitlement that separates “they” from us.  “They” do have that sense of entitlement.  “They” simply know that if they work hard, they will get some measure of reward from their labors and “they” are grateful for that chance.  “They” will not do anything to jeopardize that reward and if means outworking you, that’s exactly what “they” will do.

There are so many things wrong with this country.  Issues our government should concern itself with like the monetary debt we owe to Japan and other countries, wars that are sucking up more and more resources, 50 million people with no healthcare, public schools that are pipelines to prisons, an environment that is being contaminated on a daily basis and crime.  Why is our government spending so much time on keeping people out when we invited them in?

Americans have become so entitled and racist and afraid that we’ve forgotten our greatest strength.  It is that influx of people to a country taken away from its native people and opened up to everyone around the world that made this nation great.  Have we forgotten that it was immigrants who built this country?  Have we forgotten the many cultures that have made us great?  Have we forgotten that we export the promise of freedom and liberty around the world and then get angry when someone takes us up on that promise?

Yes, we’ve conveniently forgotten.  But we don’t have to.  July 4^th will soon be upon us.  While watching the parades and enjoying the fireworks, remember what makes this country great.  Welcome an immigrant because in a different time and a different place, that immigrant was you.