The Problem with the Mexicans

March 14, 2008

The Problem with the Mexicans by Kari Breed

America has changed quite a bit in the past few hundred years since we were busy stealing it from the natives, back when the plains were plain and New York City wasn’t much more than a trading post. We’ve come a long way since then. We’ve fought wars, gained our independence from cranky old England and drink café lattes. We’re civilized, by gum; we founded a nation. It’s ours. We own it. We won. We’re closing the doors. If you knock politely, we might let you in for a short look around.

Everyone is worried these days about the Mexicans sneaking into our country and stealing our crappy jobs. Damn foreigners. What gives them the right to look for a better way of life in OUR country? It wasn’t their forefathers who fought to liberate this place from those religiously rabid tea-taxers, it was ours. Okay, it wasn’t really my forefathers, since my family floated over post-Civil War. But, dang it, it’s my country anyway. I live here.

Considering most of us weren’t even alive, it’s not surprising we’d forget what it’s like to desperately seek escape from the dire circumstances of a really awful place to live. It’s very hard for us to remember the dream, the hope and the promise of a promise land.

A lot of Mexicans, as far as I can tell, appear to be slave laborers by choice. They are willing to toil in the hot sun all day long for mediocre pay, living like sardines in cheap apartments and sending a large chunk of their meager earnings back home to their destitute families. This doesn’t sound much different from the bedraggled optimists who founded our country. Forget Washington, Jefferson, and that whole wig-wearing lot. I’m talking about the tired, the poor, the huddled masses. I’m talking about the Italians in the Italian neighborhoods, the Jews in the Jewish communities, the Chinese in Chinatown. Have we forgotten what it’s like to be in that pile of Mexican laborers standing on a street corner hoping someone will pick us up for a day of backbreaking work?

Let’s put this into perspective. If the American economy crashed, and Mexico had all the great jobs, where do you think we’d all go, and whose native rights would we care about trampling on our path?

(A fence works both ways, by the way. Kind of like security bars when your house is on fire.)

In my estimation, most people will not choose to abandon their home unless they feel it’s necessary. Once a person calls a place home, they will till the most barren piece of earth on earth until there is nothing left to till, and they will pull the dirtiest water from their well until there is nothing left to pull. People, in general, want to be in their native land with their native people, speaking their native tongue, living where their families live and loving who their families love. So, when millions of people uproot themselves, leaving behind their homes and their loved ones, in search of a better way of life, rest assured that their old way was not a very good way. That there is a major problem seems to be a common consensus.

I’m not proposing that we simply open the floodgates to everyone who wants to migrate to the states. What I am proposing is that we eliminate our Us-Versus-Them attitudes and show some sympathy for our neighbors who are in such dire straits. I’m suggesting that we put away our fears of what they might take away from us and figure out how to help, so we can all win something in this war.

Illegal immigration is causing a real problem for the United States. We’ve been put into the uncomfortable position of having to deal with it. We’ve also been put into the position of sacrificing our values and sense of humanity to rid our nation of what some seem to think of as a scourge of stealthy brown thieves.

We can build a fence to lock them out of our sight and out of our minds, so we can drink our lattes in peace, but this doesn’t solve the problem, because the real problem is not only that they are here and how to get rid of them, the real problem is also: what are they leaving behind?

Yes, we need to stop the influx. Yes, immigration needs to be controlled, legal and fair. But let us also not sacrifice our sense of humanity by being racist toward people who are seeking better food, better shelter, better healthcare for themselves and their families. This is not a matter of us vs. them. This is a matter of us all united against the offensiveness of poor circumstances. Let us turn our attention to understanding why. Once we do that, maybe we can come to a solution that will give these people a reason to want to move back home.