Letters to the Editor
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Nothing new here...
Unfortunately, too many of them seem hell-bent on recreating the tradition of Mexican anarchy within my nation’s borders.
What did you do, besides having been born here, to claim "my nation?" Anyone with means and motive could settle in what is now the US up until maybe 150 years ago. Did the settlers from Europe get permission and visas from the Natives?
My maternal ancestors were "illegal" immigrants from France about 250 years ago. My paternal ones, Polish Jews, came here in 1905 back when it wasn't a Sisyphean task to obtain the necessary papers. Poles, especially Jews, weren't exactly welcome then. Guess where they went? Jewish ghettoes. It didn't matter that they were Poles and the rest might not have been because everyone spoke Yiddish. There's a parallel to Latin American immigrants: everyone speaks Spanish, except the Brazilians. Maybe that's why there's Brazilian neighborhoods in some cities, but you won't find many Little Tegucilgalpas.
This is "F*ck you, I got mine" hypocrisy. You're here, or you immigrated the "right" way, so now nobody else can come in? Disgusting.
Immigrants legal and not are this year's political piñata. It was us queers in 2004. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. In 2008 some other unlucky population will be "it."
"Mexicans" are the least of this country's problems. Illegal/undocumented workers built the latest housing boom; they slaughter your cows and chickens, pick your lettuce, etc., and because their masters are bigwigs who keep filling the campaign coffers, no politician is going to do squat other than bloviate and fart loudly near election time.
These aren't jobs "Americans won't do" because it's hard, dirty, dangerous work, they're jobs "Americans won't do" (a phrase is fraught with racist, jingoistic themes) because nobody else is willing to do these jobs for the sub-minimum wages they pay. Crack down on "real Americans" who exploit immigrant labor, not on an illiterate peasant from Oaxaca with an extended family to support.
The urge to improve one's life is human nature. Borders and visas are artificial constructs; the desire to lead a better life is innate. All the former do is increase the urgency and determination of the latter. I say throw both borders wide open. Past the initial inrush from the south, half will leave within a year once they realize life in El Norte is as hard and cruel as it is at home, only it's colder, and the Canadians probably aren't interested.