Readers of The State Press this week have been introduced to various aspects of the immigration debate, from the DREAM Act to the economic cost of supporting immigrants to the effects of illegal immigration on the state and the University. Many descriptive phrases were used: “illegal aliens,” “undocumented immigrants,” “unauthorized workers.”
We’ve crafted many phrases to dance around what we really mean, because the real group being debated is Mexicans.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimates the number of people in the country illegally at about 12 million. According to the Department of Homeland Security, 57 percent of illegal immigrants come from Mexico, while another 24 percent were born in other Latin American countries.
The real issue at the heart of the immigration battle isn’t a debate over legality and illegality, because nobody seems to have a problem with the other 19 percent: the Asian, Middle Eastern and European immigrants who are here illegally.
This isn’t, as many will tell you, a battle over law. It’s a battle of cultural values and cultural worth. The assertion underlying the arguments of many anti-immigration advocates is that our culture is better than their culture.
The debate arises because the Mexican and American cultures are at odds with one another. Signs and labels must be posted in separate languages.
Different holidays are celebrated. Apart from burritos, Mexican immigrants and American citizens seem unwilling to share anything.
Americans don’t like to see immigrants because we don’t like to be reminded of our perceptions of their country. We don’t like to see poverty. We don’t want to be reminded of the people living in dirty slums begging or working for below-minimum wage so they can barely scrape together enough money to eat — that’s not pleasant for us to think about.
We’re more comfortable dealing with problems like Jon and Kate’s marital issues or whether Josh Duhamel cheated on Fergie. A street corner crowded with immigrants reminds us of everything we work so hard to keep out of sight.
The extent of such appraisals will continue until one side makes a change. There are 12 million people living in this country who would likely become citizens if given the opportunity. We see them as stubborn and unwilling to accept our culture, yet we try at every avenue to block them from doing just that.
How can we chastise them for not learning English when we deny them access to schools? The system we’ve established is a self-perpetuating cycle wherein nothing despite the occasional red-faced shouting match and pleading editorial gets done.
There is a way to end the problem of illegal immigration simply and effectively. We need to streamline the process to becoming a citizen and give those already here the opportunity to become American citizens, because right now they’re not. They’re Mexican citizens clinging fast to Mexican culture — they just happen to live in a different country.
The largest part of our unwillingness to do this seems to come from our inability to make concessions. It would mean accepting that perhaps we were wrong in our staunch enforcement of immigration laws or that immigrants were right to turn their nose at them. It would mean an endorsement of the right of immigrants to be here and an acceptance of the value of the Mexican culture.
It may not be easy, but what’s right never is.
Reach Zach at zachary.fowle@asu.edu.
