Anti-immigration commentary

March 30, 4:28 PMLA Latino Issues ExaminerLuis Antonio Pichardo

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It’s funny how being a person of color allows you to get away with certain things. For example, I can say I’m proud of being Latino, and I can proclaim it in any way that is appropriate to the establishment.

I can happily eat Mexican food, including beans, tacos, tortas, burritos, etc. I can say I live in a barrio, and I can proclaim to be happy living in that barrio.

However, it’s not okay for me to point out certain social structures. It’s not okay for me to point out the fact that people sometimes live by stereotypes alone.

And it’s certainly not okay for colored people, in general, to be critical of an establishment, and much less work to do something about that establishment’s shortcomings.

Standing for what one believes in somehow becomes an attack on this country, a super-liberal diagnostic of our woes, or, heaven forbid, an act of self-victimization where we look to gain “power” over the hegemonic group.

This past week, the LA Times posted an Op-Ed piece about President Obama’s administration making Maryland’s Secretary of Labor, Thomas Perez, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

No big deal, right? Well this is what one reader had to say about the op-ed piece:

Notice how Mr. Rodriguez conflates immigrants with illegal aliens, two very different terms. This is typical of the pro-amnesty crowd. In this era of massive job loss for Americans, it is incredibly insensitive and immoral for President Obama to be advocating for "comprehensive immigration reform" a/k/a amnesty for millions of illegal foreign workers. Furthermore, we already passed a supposed one-time "comprehensive reform" in 1986 -- which failed and led to more illegal immigration. No more!

The piece, written by LA Times reporter Gregory Rodriguez, also examined the fact that Los Angeles’ own Thomas Saenz, chief counsel to Mayor Villaraigosa, was not given the position as head of the Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department, even though he had already accepted their nomination, because of his “past professional civil rights activism.”

Apparently Saenz’ work with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund made him a target for conservative, anti-immigrant groups which may have scared the current administration into second-guessing their choice for Head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Rodriguez wrote in his article:

…the fiercely anti-immigrant Investor's Business Daily accused Saenz of being an open-borders advocate. It unearthed an old canard about the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where Saenz once worked, calling it a "radical group that wants to cede California to Mexico."

The funny thing about that comment is that the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund states on their website that:

MALDEF is the nation’s leading non-profit Latino legal organization. Often described as the “law firm of the Latino community,” MALDEF promotes equality and justice through litigation, advocacy, public policy, and community education in the areas of employment, immigrants’ rights, voting rights, education, and language rights.

Personally, I don’t see anything in that statement that says MALDEF wants to cede California to México. And coincidentally, MALDEF also offered a news release on their website regarding the accusations made of their organization, which can be read here.

Now, it seems to me that people of color, whether Latino, Black, Native American, Asian, etc., cannot be completely proud of who they are. It’s as if whatever we do to help ourselves is constantly scrutinized, especially when we reach certain positions of power. We are either too liberal for anti-whatever groups, or we are too conservative for our own people and therefore lack their support.

Despite the fact that the original Anglo settlers of this country were immigrants themselves, and despite the fact that subsequent generations of Anglos expanded the United States through, often times, brute force, many of these self-proclaimed “natives” of this country still feel compelled to remind people of color, especially Latinos, that we do not really belong here.

Another reader of the Rodriguez piece in the LA Times wrote:

What if I broke into your house and the cops refused to remove me. Then I demanded that you educate my children, pay for our health care, and give me your job (because it is a job you wouldn't do anyways). That is wrong. You would think the police and courts went nuts. And then to add insult to injury, any kid I pop out under your roof becomes automatic family members (of yours) and entitled to a part of your estate. This sums up the "civil rights" that open border advocates advocate.

I, for one, know that not everybody in this country feels the way that this previous reader feels. I have met many people on both sides of the immigration issue, and I have to agree with one thing: our country does need a serious reform of our immigration policy. We need to better understand its root causes and work as a collective to rectify the woes of our fellow man.

But what most people don’t understand is that racism and prejudice still exist, and those attitudes come up all too often in our everyday interactions. Immigration is not just a Latino issue. It is also an Asian issue. It is also an Eastern European issue. It is also an African issue. And no, not everybody who attempts to immigrate to this wonderful country is Mexican.

The problem that is caused by this narrow mindset only further perpetuates the feelings of anger, distrust, and resentment towards the dominant White population and what is, often times, seen as a pro-White system. The real cause of most of our societies problems is economics, but that is an issue that must be handled in a different way.

For now, the only thing I can advocate for is a better understanding of our countries’ core issues, and a willingness to be open to all forms of thought and communication. We are no longer a single nation with a single interest. We are one world with many issues that are ultimately interconnected.