Thoughts on an Immigration Forum

Last night I attended a forum on immigration hosted by the City of Pasadena’s Human Relations Commission. This took place at the Jackie Robinson Center in Pasadena’s Northwest neighborhood—an area affected the most by immigration issues, especially between the African-American and Hispanic communities. The event was well attended by a cross-section of concerned citizens and outspoken community leaders. As I listened to the speakers, many of whom were immigrants, both undocumented and documented, I was made aware of how volatile the questions raised were; how far-reaching, both into history and to the future, this debate could rage. As a Pasadena police officer with many years of service in an area with a high immigrant population, I had several thoughts about this very important discussion.

It would behoove all of us that are involved some way in the national immigration debate to consider a broader range of issues than just “English”-only laws, border fences, and the splitting up of families. Immigrants, whether illegal or legal, are a fact of life in America. Our nation was founded by immigrants, and continues to be strengthened by many immigrants and their descendants. Criminalizing a group of people who come here seeking a better way of life is not the answer. However, neither is blanket amnesty nor a defeatist resignation that nothing can be done to change the flow and system of immigrant integration into our society.

The news reports it. Americans see it. Immigrants feel it. The police, fire, public education, and social services agencies are stretched to the limit by it. Immigration is affecting everybody in our society, whether immediately or tangentially. Unemployed Americans blame undocumented workers for taking their jobs away, while the government views our porous borders as a threat to national security. Whatever the perception or reality, a growing segment of our population throughout America views unchecked immigration as destroying the very fabric of our American culture.

However, until several broader issues are addressed, tackling the immigration issue at the local or state level will be nearly impossible. We should all be working to convince our political leaders, immigrant outreach groups, and grassroots organizations to compel the foreign governments where the majority of immigrant communities hail from to enact real economic and social reform at home. Many members of our immigrant communities would never leave their countries if the same economic opportunities existed there—they love their homelands. The foreign governments involved are able to avoid changing the status quo because they have the United States to absorb their economically depressed and politically disenfranchised masses.

Imagine if there was no United States for these people to go to. They would become the vocal, and possibly even revolutionary catalyst for their home governments, many of which are rife with institutionalized corruption, to make political and social improvements.

As to the charge that undocumented immigrants are taking jobs away from Americans, this question is debated incorrectly I believe. It’s not that Americans aren’t willing to do the work that the undocumented perform, it’s that American workers aren’t willing to do those jobs for the slave-like wages that are paid to the undocumented, and that corporate America gets rich off of.

We are all partly to blame for this. We like our products, groceries, our fine dining, and our home improvement labor at the nice cheap prices that we pay. We have become complacent and in a sense, consumer “greedy.”

If Americans were paid what American workers would be traditionally paid, they would pick grapes, cotton, dig ditches, etc.—I mean, who wouldn’t, if they were getting paid $18-25 an hour? The problem, of course, is that the costs of everything would go up. Well, is that a problem? I don’t know, I’m not an economist. But I got a good feeling that all of our wages would go up across the board along with the cost of living increase. I’ve said before that I wouldn’t mind paying $25 for a head of lettuce if I was pulling in $150,000 a year.

The immigrants who come to the U.S. seeking a better life also need to take “ownership” of their new status. They need to make a good faith effort to try to become documented through any and all legal channels. They should look into English classes and learn about the history, government, laws, and customs of Americans and the United States. If they want to become accepted more by native-born and loyal, naturalized Americans, new immigrants should “cut the ties” politically to their countries. They should seek to assimilate and acculturate into American society, participating in our civic organizations and structure, raising their children with traditional American values and norms of behavior. If they don’t know what these are, or are having trouble understanding them, they should seek out classes and people who can guide them.

It’s not enough for new immigrants, whether documented or undocumented, to say that they pay “sales” taxes, or contribute to the “economy” by using their buying power in their neighborhoods. What does that matter if they are only forming “Little Mexicos” or “Little Hong Kongs” here, complete with signs in their own languages? How are they going to convince Americans that they, too, want to become “American” if they are still living life as if they were in their native land, flying foreign flags and casting absentee ballots in their home country’s elections? Being part of the “American Dream” doesn’t mean coming here, making money, shipping half of the cash back to Mexico or wherever, where you still have your family, and then bad-mouthing “gringos” while claiming that we “stole your lands.”

Being part of the “American Dream” means coming to the United States because you want to be “American.” It means embracing our way of life, our culture, and our customs while still retaining the flavor and memory of one’s own immigrant culture.