Immigration

Growing up in San Diego, I was always aware that Mexico was just around the corner. Our church would send groups down on the weekends to bring food and help build houses. In high school, kids would come back to school on Monday with their crazy stories of the latest party in Tijuana. I had helped raise money for charities that benefited Mexico, but until my senior year in high school, I had never crossed the border.
For spring break in 2006 I went to sunny Cabo San Lucas with my best friend as our senior trip. But the true Mexico was only revealed on the long bus ride from the dusty airport to the oasis that was our hotel. The surroundings reeked of poverty, and yet here we were, sleeping in king size beds or sipping a cold drink by the pool. The end of that year would soon open my eyes to the true Mexico.
2006 was a big year for immigration, mostly in a negative way. New constraints were put on border patrol and Americans took it into their own hands to literally kill the illegal flow of people into our country. These new laws affected several diverse groups of people and I even found myself involved.
The first and probably most devastated group were the Mexican people, both legal and illegal. Families were ripped apart as relatives were sent back across the border. Children born in the US were “benevolently” allowed to stay while their parents were deported. The high school down the street from mine scheduled a walkout, as did many of the laborers in the county. This was to show how much of an impact these people have on our economy.
This leads to the second group of people, the business owners. Their workers are now being shipped away and jobs are being lost. Sure, you could argue all day that these workers were not receiving a fair wage and the moral issue there, but some wage is better than no wage when your child’s stomach is growling. Now we have a loss of revenue and our economy suffers.
Then there’s the selfish bigots in the country who would rather spend ridiculous amounts of money on gas to feed their Hummers than pay taxes for a hardworking Hispanic’s health care. This group rejoices in the fact that the illegal “alien” population is constantly decreasing and finally America is, if I may use the word, purging itself of the filth and crime they bring with them. First, how dare we call these people aliens. I remember growing up and not even thinking of them as human. Since when does citizenship define humanity? Second, these people are forgetting what it is that made America what it is today and that is the hard working immigrants that busted their butts so that they could make less than minimum wage to feed their families. It’s worked for us so far, why stop it?
Finally, there’s anyone who is 18 or older. This group holds the power to vote and thus is substantially invested in this issue. We need to educate ourselves on the issue so we can make changes for the better and hopefully redefine what it means to be an American.