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.

Be Proud To Be American

The other day an American girlfriend of mine talked about how when she traveled in Spain, she dodged any and all debates, hassles, and other potential trouble from the locals by claiming that she was Canadian. “I’m Canadian,” she would tell the inquisitive Spaniard who picked up on her American-sounding accent. I understood her reluctance to have to defend her nationality. Any American who’s ever been abroad knows that the minute they are identified as “American,” they are instantly transformed into AMERICA! Suddenly they represent every U.S. foreign policy decision of the last fifty years and are asked to answer for President Bush, capitalism, our way of life, etc. Even if one’s foreign hosts “like” them, they are grilled to no end by a bevy of smug, anti-American experts on our culture, who have gained all of their knowledge of our country and our people by none other than…you guessed it—Hollywood!

Ready? Americans are loud and obnoxious, nothing but phonies! Why do you all smile all the time and say “hi” to strangers? Americans are superficial slaves of pop culture and money—just look at your TV shows and national “icons.” Americans are ignorant of other cultures, languages, and geography—you all think you own the world and can throw your weight around. Americans are imperialist warmongers. Americans never travel. Americans are all simpletons whose lack of a strong, public education system has made them the laughing stock of the industrialized world. Blah, blah, blah…We’ve heard it all before.

The problem is, most Americans who are bombarded by this litany of charges are usually too stunned—appalled is a better word—to muster an intelligent and rational defense. Well, I’m going to give that defense to you right here and now, and it starts with this: Be proud to be an American!

Americans aren’t loud and obnoxious. We’re a cheerful, confident, and friendly people, with a strong tradition of “neighborliness” and “customer service.” Rena Moore, an Australian friend of mine who lives in London and recently traveled with me in New York, was shocked at how friendly Americans are.

“You would NEVER see people like this in London,” she said. “Nobody smiles or says ‘hi’. People here are amazing!” Even the wait staff at our restaurants blew her away. “You would sit for an hour at a place in Europe as the waiters ignored you,” she commented. “They’ve never heard of customer service in London or Paris!” She later realized that everything people thought about Americans where she’d traveled was wrong.

“We used to always pick out the Yanks on the ‘Tube’ [London subways] because we could hear you all talking and laughing. Now I see that Americans aren’t loud and obnoxious, as we all thought” she pointed out. “It’s just that Europeans never talk on trains or platforms!”

I thought about my own experiences in Europe and saw that she was right. Most Europeans never interacted on trains and subway platforms the way we do here in the States. They minded their own business, kept their noses buried in books or newspapers and kept their mouths shut. I wonder how much of this comes from experience living under the Nazi or Soviet jackboot, where the passenger sitting next to you could have been a Gestapo or KGB agent. Interesting, isn’t it?

The funny thing about the charge that Americans are uncultured boors who never travel, is that it usually is directed at a college-educated Yank who happens to be…traveling! Point that out to your foreign inquisitors next time. Americans travel plenty and many of us have attended some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the world. Hey, foreigners are coming in droves to our universities, not the other way around! Plus, when we travel and interact with foreigners, and vice versa, we tend to only associate with like-minded, cultured types who travel frequently. Tell your hosts that there for every moo-moo-wearing, Hometown Buffet-eating, uncultured American, there’s just as many ignorant, fat provincials hailing from their own French, English, and German country sides, who couldn’t point out Rwanda on a map or speak their own language properly to save their souls.

As for Americans being greedy, superficial slaves of pop culture and money, look around you. Most of the so-called “Americans” who spend all their time chasing fancy cars, Rolexes, fast cash, and the “bling bling” are actually transplanted foreigners! They are the ones who don’t get what it is to be American; don’t understand our culture. They weren’t raised here in our country, with our values, and therefore don’t have the spiritual and emotional “cushion” to properly absorb the negative aspects of our culture and put it into its proper context. They are the ones who think “America” is about greed, cars, and cash. And who do you think is importing and buying “American culture” up the yin yang? It’s the European, Asian, Middle Eastern, and African folks who can’t get enough of our “stuff,” even while they denigrate it. It’s not us shoving it down their throats.

And Americans as “imperialist war mongers”? Next time, ask your friendly neighborhood foreigner what “empire” the United States ever had? The last time I checked my history books, the British had an empire, so did the Italians, French, Islamists (and they’re still trying to get it!), Germans, Dutch, Japanese, Russians, Spanish—heck! In fact, in the last 100 years, the United States was usually trying to liberate poor people from these empires, as we still are today. And, as Colin Powell once remarked, the only land we ever asked for in return was a little space to bury our dead. The United States doesn’t have an “empire” and we never did.

If your foreign inquisitors still aren’t satisfied, leave them with these points to ponder. The United States has produced the most Nobel Prize winners in every category except literature, and recently just swept all the science prizes. The United States has the most Olympic medals, including Olympic gold medals, than any other country. The U.S. has participated in more humanitarian relief missions, either by supplying aid personnel, military troops, supplies, or money, than any other nation. As one of the youngest nations on Earth, the United States has the oldest, continuous form of government. Our Declaration of Independence and Constitution are the most influential and enduring political documents ever produced, copied or emulated by more countries than any other. Our military power and reach is unsurpassed, and is matched only by our humanitarianism and good will. Our culture sets the tone for the rest of the world, our language is the language of the world, and if that is not enough for them…

…hey, who went to the moon?