by Ruben Navarrette Jr.
Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union Tribune, a nationally syndicated columnist, a frequent lecturer, and a regular contributor to CNN.com.
As the immigration reform debate reboots over the next several weeks — prompted by the introduction of a new bill by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) with the apparent blessing of the White House — the nation’s 49 million Latinos will once again find themselves under scrutiny. Because the majority of the current wave of immigrants to the United States — both legal and illegal — come from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Brazil, and other Latin American countries, some Americans are apt to question the loyalties of U.S.-born Latinos, accusing them of being more sympathetic to the foreign visitors than to their own country or fellow citizens.
It’s not right, but nor is it new. With the arrival of every immigrant group to these shores for the last 220 years — from the Germans, Irish, and Italians to the Chinese, Jews, and Greeks — there have been similar questions about U.S. citizens with those ethnic roots. History shows those concerns were largely unfounded and based more on prejudice than reason. The same is true now. Still, it’s fair to say that many U.S.-born Latinos still remain ambivalent about illegal immigration, especially if — somewhere in their family — there’s an ancestor who jumped over a fence, crossed under a wire, or swam a river to give himself and his descendants a better tomorrow.
Don’t look at me. I can say with certainty that I don’t have any illegal immigrants in my family tree. Both my parents were born in the U.S., as were three of my four grandparents. The fourth is the only immigrant, but he came legally in about 1915.
[Of course, in a piece of history that is lost on those readers who assure me that their great-great grandfather came to the United States in the late 1800s, one couldn’t come illegally until 1924. That’s when Congress first limited immigration by devising quotas based on country of origin. Before then, not very many people even kept track of who was coming or going.]
But what seem to be a relative few, like the Latino reader who wrote me recently to criticize some of my positions, appear to be sorting through conflicting loyalties.
“I get the sense you are proud to be Latino and defend Latinos when they are unnecessarily attacked,” he wrote. “But I am confused as to why you are against illegal immigration. In one of your articles you state that you support ‘speedy deportations and raids.’ As someone who has relatives who have come to this country illegally, I don’t think I have it in me to say some of the things you have said — like supporting raids and deportations. I do not think it looks and sounds good to say things like that, especially coming from someone who is of Mexican ancestry.”
I had to respond.
“I’m not only the grandson of a Mexican immigrant but also the son of a retired cop,” I wrote. “Opposing illegal anything comes easy, because it’s ‘illegal.’ The better question is why so many Latinos are willing to excuse this one kind of illegal behavior because they have family members who’ve engaged in it. I have cousins in San Quentin, born in the U.S., who engaged in other kinds of illegal behavior and I don’t feel compelled to defend them. Family ties only get you so far. Lastly, I believe people have to take responsibility for their actions. If you love the people who make up your community, you’ll stop coddling them and start treating them like adults. ”
Conservatives might be surprised to learn of that exchange. In the minds of many of them, I have three strikes that lead them to think that I condone illegal immigration — my surname, my support for comprehensive reform, and my opposition to half-baked, harebrained anti-illegal immigration measures that never work and only succeed in dividing people. But if they think I lean too far to the left, they should get a look at some of those who criticize me for leaning too far to the right.
Here’s the bargain that needs striking. U.S.-born Latinos have to stand up against illegal immigration, even as they continue to support comprehensive immigration reform and condemn bigotry and stupidity wherever it surfaces. And, at the same time, other U.S. citizens have to give them the benefit of the doubt and stop assuming that their loyalties lie elsewhere. They may be working through a few things, like other groups of Americans have for the last couple hundred years. But they’ll find their way home.
– I couldn’t have said it better. Terry Crowley
This is certainly a breath of fresh air on this blog
Terry,
The author of the column by his own admission is not descended from any immigrants. It is hardly a surprise that he has no compassion for these people.
I too was born here. As was my maternal grandfather. But when I look at immigrants I cannot help but think, there but for the grace of God go I.
We cannot know what it feels like to be so desperate that you would enter a nation that hates you, where you don’t speak the language, just to try to scrape up a few dollars to send home.
To make matters worse, our immigration policy is just plain stupid. It is almost impossible to come here legally.
We stole this nation from native Americans. Many of the Latin Americans who want to come here are themselves descended from native stock. How dare we tell them they cannot come here?
Our only hope to compete with the Chinese and the Muslim countries is to allow more Latin immigrants, not less. And they likewise are our only hope to sustain the Ponzi scheme that is Social Security.
The reason many Americans oppose these immigrants is simple. They are xenophobic and racist, period.
Remember who signed the original Amnesty. That’s right, Ronald Reagan, He understood what most Republicans today simply cannot grasp.
I hope Obama signs another Amnesty. And I hope our nation’s immigrants do anything but register as Republicans. Serves the GOP right.
“Don’t look at me. I can say with certainty that I don’t have any illegal immigrants in my family tree. Both my parents were born in the U.S., as were three of my four grandparents. The fourth is the only immigrant, but he came legally in about 1915.”
Must this guy flaunt his ignorance?
Remember who signed the original Amnesty. That’s right, Ronald Reagan, He understood what most Republicans today simply cannot grasp.
I hope Obama signs another Amnesty. And I hope our nation’s immigrants do anything but register as Republicans. Serves the GOP right.
…. and every 20 year another president each time 20,000,000 uneducated and not willing to learn people destroying the American dream of others.
and every 20 year another president each time 20,000,000 uneducated and not willing to learn people destroying the American dream of others.
Hey Fiala, I wish you would learn to speak English if you insist on staying in my country.
Vern, forget the English….. assimilate!
The USA is land of the opportunity for an individual!
It is not your socialistic honky tong land for all.
That goes for you too!… (pinko) white man.
FYI, this is my country because I am American, your country is in the Russia.
Art, you can read better than that.
“I’m not only the grandson of a Mexican immigrant but also the son of a retired cop,” I wrote. “Opposing illegal anything comes easy, because it’s ‘illegal.’
Excusing behavior because you think this country made victims of someone doesn’t change their behavior. The spanish speakers in your parents native country stole it from the central american indians, the aztecs, and so on, so they have no room to talk.
Even worse than coming to a nation that you say hates you, and again, that would be the nation where 95% of the planet would trade places with you so maybe you should think again, because you’re coming from a country that hates you or doesn’t want you.
If you think its hard to come here legally, its cause you or those you know haven’t even tried.
I am a citizen of the United States and I have a friend that is from
Paris, France here on a student visa to finish his degree. Noureddine
Feddane has been here since 2005. His visa is valid until March of
2010, his passport is valid until 2014, and his I-20 is current. He is
not what people call an ‘illegal immigrant.’ In 2008, he fell in love
and married a U.S. citizen that just happens to be addicted to
prescription medications. Noureddine knew nothing about this. But he
was arrested due to her mistakes.
He was placed in detention and scheduled for deportation. My friend
has been in detention center in Pompano Beach Florida for 5 months
now. This couple has lost all there savings on lawyers, she lost her
job, and they are in the process of losing their home. All this was
caused because ICE has the wrong person in jail.
I have written many letters to Janet Napolitano, Senator Bill Nelson,
Representative Ginny Brown-Waite and even President Obama. But no one
will listen. What is illegal in this case is the way DHS is treating
this guy, who is 51 and has never had a traffic violation. While in
detention center, they have abused him, denied him food and proper
medical treatment. Noureddine is diabetic and they will not give him
the proper food or medical attention. The phone system is very poor
and hardly works. I suspect that they plan it that way so the
detainees cannot contact their lawyers and family. I fear he will be
next on the long list of persons that have died while in detention.
Until you go to one of these detention centers and see with your own
eyes, you will not believe what America is doing. I was shocked, on my
first visit and after almost 6 months of seeing what happens and how
they have to live, I am still in shock. It is all about the money
. My friend has never
cost America anything until they locked him up. He is in a private
prison owned by a company called GEO
based near Miami, Florida. They are paid very well by our tax dollars,
but the treatment is unbelievable. I wonder how many politicians have
stock in this company. They are doing quite well even in a bad
economy.
Six months ago I had no idea that we treated immigrants in this way,
especially when they are here legally and have done nothing wrong. I
knew nothing about ICE and how they operate illegally
. I was under
the impression that DHS was here only to protect us from terrorists.
And I had no idea of the millions of our tax dollars were being wasted
to imprison people that could be out of detention and have their
family support them until a decision is made in immigration court. I
do not understand why we have to pay our hard earned tax dollars to
house and feed persons that are not dangerous.
When they have to lock up a man who has done nothing wrong, make him
spend thousands in fees, ICE is giving way too much importance to
themselves. How can we turn such educated people away simply to boost
the ego of ICE officers and add another number to the Janet Napolitano
deportation list, so that the Obama Administration can look like it is
doing its job of ‘cracking down on criminals?’
Something has to change soon. I feel it is my duty as an American to
let as many people as possible know the truth. I visit the detention
center every Saturday and spend the rest of the week writing letters.
This Christmas, let’s do something worthwhile. Let’s go back to
protecting the country rather than making up stories to justify the
expansion of a national security complex. Let’s end businesses
profiting from immigrant detention and restore our image as a nation
of immigrants.
Terry,
So you know why so many Latin Americans are brown? They have native blood coursing through their veins.
And if coming here legally is so easy why do many immigrants pay coyotes thousands of dollars to bring them here?
Why was it fair for millions of Euros to come here without an issue and now the door is closed?
Pray tell, where did the Crowley clan come from?
I have known a lot of guys like Navarette. They had it easy and now find it easy to look askance at those who have it hard. Well I am not buying this hater B.S.
Republicans love to scapegoat Latin American immigrants, but these people come here to do dirty work, at low wages, that many Americans won’t do.
It is time to reform our system to make it easier to come here. And we need another Amnesty. Navarette’s hater dialogue accomplishes nada!
how dare we deny them entrance with their native bloodstock? Geez…it they are citizens of another country we have ways for them to come here legally. That is not denying them, it is only making them follow rules. Well, I guess it is denying them a free pass to just move in but they need to grow up and follow rules. We grant citizenship to a lot of people annumally, people who played by the rules and waited their turn. Quit jumping the line. Also, as I said before, a stronger anti illegal immigration policy against the white man would have saved their land. They didn’t succeed and lost land. Let’s not repeat history.
Yes, we should all be “good Germans” and follow the rules when we’re not too busy writing diatribes about all the crooked politicians who make the rules.
I agree with you Larry. The good Germans follow the politically correct line of BS and anyone else is an “IMMIGRANT DENIER”.
Art, your America hating BS accomplishes less and hurts your own argument. You know you’re wrong in your hyperbole, and it does nothing to justify law breaking. Quit making excuses for people by making them victims. That makes you as much of a hater as anyone. Stop. Please.
If you think its hard to come here legally, its cause you or those you know haven’t even tried.
Jesus, what the hell do YOU know about it, up in your cabin in Idaho or Colorado or whatever? I’ve helped several Mexican friends get their citizenship, it’s a nearly-decade-long Kafkaesque nightmare. Read Kafka. Read “The Trial.” That’s what it’s like right now, our immigration system. Bizarre, you trying to tell us how simple it is, from up where you are.
Excusing behavior because you think this country made victims of someone doesn’t change their behavior. The spanish speakers in your parents native country stole it from the central american indians, the aztecs, and so on, so they have no room to talk.
Most of us who are friends of immigrants and support immigration reform are not “Reconquista” nuts, so you’re talking to phantoms or “straw men” shall we say. I’m proud that the conquest of California in the 1850’s was nearly bloodless, as a great many Mexicans here preferred to live under our American democracy than the series of warlords, despots and jacobins Mexico had at the time. So I was never one of those liberals who say “We stole the land from Mexico.” But either way, America needs their labor, they have rights too, and we all need the immigration system to be more fair, efficient and humane.
Even worse than coming to a nation that you say hates you, and again, that would be the nation where 95% of the planet would trade places with you so maybe you should think again, because you’re coming from a country that hates you or doesn’t want you.
Are they still letting you be the “libertarian” columnist for a “national magazine?” That is, a professional writer? What does that paragraph even mean?
By the way, the rules allow you to purchase a visa if you’ve got the money – doesn’t that make you proud to be an American Capitalist?
Also, if you ever get to the head of the line and have been working here to earn enough money to pay your fees,etc., you can move through the process by paying a fine. Now if we start deporting people we’ll never collect those fees and fines.
I’ve been an immigration lawyer for for 16 years, and I can tell you IT IS HARD AS HELL to come here legally. There has never been as many rules, regulations, laws, etc. to curb immigration as there are now, and yet people still come. Why? Because our economy (recession notwithstanding) needs them, especially the unskilled who fill jobs American born workers won’t do. Until we realize this, we will need an amnesty every 20 years. To equate a person who commits a criminal act with someone who is crossing an arbitrary line in the desert looking for a better life for his family is absurd and naive. No one should be condoning illegal activity, but you wouldn’t equate someone texting while driving with someone who robbed a bank. Both are illegal, but there’s a big difference.
Wonder what Navarette’s take on Cuban immigration is? Does he support “wet foot/dry foot”?
The inequities in our immigration system must be fixed. When will all these nativists call for a rehaul of immigration policy instead of the bashing of those seeking a better life?
Most of us who are friends of immigrants and support immigration reform are not “Reconquista” nuts
Vern, that’s like saying you could call yourself a Republican and not be associated with David Duke.
or,
Read Kafka. Read “The Trial.” That’s what it’s like right now, our immigration system.
You make gross (as in huge) generalizations without any support, even subjective ones. You want straw men? Presented case.
Vern, that’s like saying you could call yourself a Republican and not be associated with David Duke.
um… yeah… that also sounds like a reasonable statement. And?
“Read Kafka…That’s what it’s like right now, our immigration system.” You make gross (as in huge) generalizations without any support, even subjective ones.
It’s boring to re-tell personal stories of Kafkaesque experiences. I don’t have the time right now and I wouldn’t want to put anyone through the pain of reading it. If you don’t believe everyone else who has actually been involved in the immigration issue, fine, stay in your cabin. But maybe stick to writing about more THEORETICAL and PHILOSOPHICAL things, while the rest of us get our hands dirty.
Actually, read comment #8.
More about Mr Navarrette’s view of Illegal Immigration:
Opinion: Ruben Navarrette Jr.: Immigrants, it’s time to consider going home
By Ruben Navarrette Jr.
San Diego Union-Tribune
Posted: 11/21/2009 08:00:00 PM PST
SAN DIEGO — In the past, I’ve advised undocumented immigrants from Mexico to learn English, become legal, value education, refuse handouts, resist entitlement, and culturally assimilate. Now, given a disturbing trend tied to the wobbly U.S. economy — one that turns the immigration equation upside down — I have one more piece of advice: Consider going home.
Let me explain. It’s not because they shouldn’t be here in the first place. That’s a given. Regular readers know that I don’t support illegal immigration. In fact, I support speedy deportations, workplace raids, and tighter borders. I also support comprehensive immigration reform that gives illegal immigrants already here a pathway to earned legal status. There’s no contradiction. You can’t have conditional reform without enforcement. How would you handle those who didn’t meet the conditions?
But don’t expect me to sign on to the idealistic rhetoric from immigration restrictionists who think that all people in the country illegally should voluntarily return to where they came from because it’s the right thing to do. Why should they? They have accomplices, after all — they came here because employers were willing to hire them. I would never be so naive as to make the argument that illegal immigrants should self-deport for moral reasons, any more than I would suggest employers turn themselves in to get right with the law.
Yet, given recent events, I am willing to contemplate a completely different argument: that illegal immigrants should self-deport because of family reasons or, more precisely, because of family responsibility. They should leave not to please Americans but to alleviate some of the pressure that has come to weigh on relatives back home.
After all, in large part, Mexican migration is an expression of family values. The main reason that most Mexicans are here in the first place isn’t for freedom or a fresh start, but simply to make enough money to send home to their relatives so that their lives in Mexico might be a little easier.
And guess what’s happening now? According to the New York Times, there’s a kind of reverse remittance going on where, instead of illegal immigrants sending money to Mexico, more and more poor people in Mexico are scraping together whatever they can to send funds to unemployed sons and daughters in the United States. Reporters interviewed Mexican government officials, bankers, money-transfer operators, immigration experts and Mexicans with out-of-work relatives in the United States. What they found was that, more and more often, these binational transfers of wealth are headed north instead of south.
This trend sounds counterintuitive, but it makes perfect sense in human terms. The parents quoted in the article want to do what most parents do when their kids are struggling financially — send money, at least enough for them to get a bite to eat. It doesn’t matter whether those kids are under the same roof or 1,000 miles to the north.
But, as the article points out, the trouble is that most Mexicans are not in a position to be anyone’s fairy godmother. Poised to lose as many as 735,000 jobs this year and with an economy that could decline as much as 7.5 percent, Mexico could be one of the countries hardest hit by the global recession. Remittances from relatives in the United States, while still a leading source of foreign revenue, have also suffered a steep decline.
In many Mexican villages, all you find are older people — many of them now working harder to earn a few extra pesos to send to children in the United States. This is, at best, a temporary solution. Folks on both sides of the border are treading water and trying to buy enough time for the U.S. economy to bounce back and for the jobs to return. At that point, they hope things will go back to the way they used to be — money flowing south.
But until that happens, why remain here? For pride? For hubris? To avoid accepting failure? For that, they’re allowing their elderly parents — many of whom have worked their entire lives — to continue to work long hours, perhaps putting their own health in jeopardy? What if something happens to them in the process? It’s not worth it. Life is short enough as it is.
If the immigrants who are in the United States can’t afford to live here, then remaining is a luxury they also can’t afford. They might not be better off at home. But their families might be. If so, time to go.
RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR. is a San Diego Union-Tribune columnist.
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Navarette doesn’t add anything insightful to this debate. NAFTA pushed millions of Mexicans out of Mexico and into the United States as cheap labor without any rights. To justify this exploitation, and to shut down any debate over NAFTA and 500 years of economic exploitation, they characterize them as “criminals.” To erase their history as indigenous people, they call them “Latinos.”
In any successful human rights movement, the oppressed have to have moral authority. That’s what people like Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck are hired to prevent by calling them “criminals” 24/7.
Navarette is opearting within this paradigm. He’s an Uncle Tom Idiot.
In short, Navarette is a Whistling Weenie from Planet W, in the immortal Words of Walt Whitman. Case closed.
Hello, all. Ahhh, where to begin…this argument pits extremists on both sides against each other. The Aztlanistas, as Gus Arelano so frequently points out, are reactionary racists. The Mexican belief in their Raza Cosmica holds that the sacred mixing of blood has resulted in a superior race, tho this is a rather difficult contention to uphold by any examples. The US anti immigrant fringe is full of snake handling, storefront church attending, uneducated buffoons.
The real problem is that Mexican and Latin immigrants have no experience with democratic institutions. Their culture is pre modern, relies on the family and distrusts any gummerment, and is highly patriarchal. In short, Fascists. Latino immigration should be severely limited due to this fact alone.
What nonsense.
ocYahoo,
“The Mexican belief in their Raza Cosmica holds that the sacred mixing of blood has resulted in a superior race,”
“The real problem is that Mexican and Latin immigrants have no experience with democratic institutions. Their culture is pre modern, relies on the family and distrusts any gummerment,”
What studies did you reference to conclude this stereotypical rubbish?????? Of course…. it is made up.
Studies? This is a comedy site! Los Ratos Comicas!
oc yahoo,
There is nothing funny about racism.
Ruben is increasingly becoming more and more loony.
Yahoo: If you’re going to use me to make a point, at least spell my name right…
To equate a person who commits a criminal act with someone who is crossing an arbitrary line in the desert looking for a better life for his family is absurd and naive.
#15 are you talking about Jews and Arabs?… Moses and Egypt?
Is trespassing a felony?
#Vern, although Kafka was Jew he was first Bohemian as I am. You can never comprehend Kafka writings because you have no knowledge of the bohemian background.
Your referential use of Kafka is only snobbish gesture of a plebej.
Dr. Lomeli, are the Mexicans here to reclaim the land or are they here to gain from the fruits of intelligent society?
Why China can pull itself by the bootstraps, becoming largest economy in the world, out of nothing, and Mexico can’t? Do you believe Dr. Lomeli that it has something to do with the populates’ IQ?… or it is just a luck?
Rampant population growth threatens our economy and quality of life. Immigration, both legal and illegal, are fueling this growth. I’m not talking about environmental degradation or resource depletion. I’m talking about the effect upon rising unemployment and poverty in America.
I should introduce myself. I am the author of a book titled “Five Short Blasts: A New Economic Theory Exposes The Fatal Flaw in Globalization and Its Consequences for America.” To make a long story short, my theory is that, as population density rises beyond some optimum level, per capita consumption of products begins to decline out of the need to conserve space. People who live in crowded conditions simply don’t have enough space to use and store many products. This declining per capita consumption, in the face of rising productivity (per capita output, which always rises), inevitably yields rising unemployment and poverty.
This theory has huge implications for U.S. policy toward population management, especially immigration policy. Our policies of encouraging high rates of immigration are rooted in the belief of economists that population growth is a good thing, fueling economic growth. Through most of human history, the interests of the common good and business (corporations) were both well-served by continuing population growth. For the common good, we needed more workers to man our factories, producing the goods needed for a high standard of living. This population growth translated into sales volume growth for corporations. Both were happy.
But, once an optimum population density is breached, their interests diverge. It is in the best interest of the common good to stabilize the population, avoiding an erosion of our quality of life through high unemployment and poverty. However, it is still in the interest of corporations to fuel population growth because, even though per capita consumption goes into decline, total consumption still increases. We now find ourselves in the position of having corporations and economists influencing public policy in a direction that is not in the best interest of the common good.
The U.N. ranks the U.S. with eight third world countries – India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Uganda, Ethiopia and China – as accounting for fully half of the world’s population growth by 2050. It’s absolutely imperative that our population be stabilized, and that’s impossible without dramatically reining in immigration, both legal and illegal.
If you’re interested in learning more about this important new economic theory, I invite you to visit my web site at http://PeteMurphy.wordpress.com.
Pete Murphy
Author, “Five Short Blasts”
“Dr. Lomeli, are the Mexicans here to reclaim the land or are they here to gain from the fruits of intelligent society?”
“Why China can pull itself by the bootstraps, becoming largest economy in the world, out of nothing, and Mexico can’t? Do you believe Dr. Lomeli that it has something to do with the populates’ IQ?… or it is just a luck?”
Fiala,
You are pretty stupid for someone claiming to be genetically superiour to the rest of humanity.
Dr. Lomeli, are the Mexicans here to reclaim the land or are they here to gain from the fruits of intelligent society?”
“Why China can pull itself by the bootstraps, becoming largest economy in the world, out of nothing, and Mexico can’t? Do you believe Dr. Lomeli that it has something to do with the populates’ IQ?… or it is just a luck?”
Fiala,
You are pretty stupid for someone claiming to be genetically superior to the rest of humanity.
As a legal citizen, what bothers myself and others is the fact that at demonstrations for immigration there are always more flags of Mexico than of the U.S.. If you want to become a citizen here (or anywhere else) to create a better life for yourself and your family. God bless you! I simply ask that you respect our laws and our language and try to join our culture, don’t get mad because someone doesn’t speak your language, learn theirs. Also, do not pretend there is not a criminal element among illegal immigrants, because there is (however small that percentage may be). What needs to happen is reform needs to take place in Mexico! Instead of coming here illegally, demand change at home. The people who organize and march here should be organizing in Mexico where the overwhelming corruption is! Why is it always the “racists and bigots” in America who are wrong, but not the corrupt Mexican officials?
#33
The reason they don’t focus on their own land is simple.. They can claim civil rights here, but not in Mexico.. Mexico views its people as a form of export, (they are disposable).. Here Mexicans see if they cry and shout foul, it just might get them what they want.. a first class ticket to the front line of citizenship..
Your right Mexicans need to develop some balls and fight to get their country back!
white people are so racists. stop the racists. paranoid white people.
white people need to back to europe. white people are whiners.