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Regardless of where you stand on the issue of undocumented workers in this country, I trust that every one of you believes there needs to be a productive solution in this manner. That is why this post is to ask for your participation on this immigration reform debate.
On Monday, April 10th in over 100 other cities throughout all 50 states, rallies will be held to build immigration awareness. To learn of them near your hometown, please go to this website about the National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice."
Meanwhile, I want to point out that immigration awareness in this country is much more of an economic and social issue than it is a security issue. Consider these points:
· Various estimateshave undocumented workers of all nationalities contribute between $300 and $450 billion tax revenue into the U.S. Social Security trust each year. Consider $450 billion in tax revenue, compared to the disputed $3-to$21 billion that undocumented workers allegedly cost the U.S. healthcare system annually. What has been proposed to offset income into a trust that is allegedly on the verge of bankruptcy?
· According to Alan Greenspan and analysts at theFederal Reserve, the United States needs its labor source to grow by more than a million workers each year-yet the U.S. State Department offers only 40,000 visas annually. A large part of the economic slowdown following September 11th was the chilling effect of hiring immigrants to work in this country.
· Long term, it is fair to say that without a constant growing and vibrant labor force, the United States cannot compete effectively, particularly with China, India and other parts of Asia.
The United States has a centuries-long history of trusting the migrant labor force to build its thriving economy. So-in the words of author Juan Hernandez: "Why Are We Afraid of Mexican Immigrants?"
Fortunately my family--who are just as much Mexican Americans as they are Native American, like most Mexicans-but that's another story--had the fortune of coming to this country when it was more accepting of Latinos as a labor force. That is not the case for distant cousins my family may have in Mexico-or the workers who have been employed in my family's farming businesses in Washington state, Mexico and California respectively.
Some members of my family know that this is more an economic and social issue than one of security-and I suspect that many Americans haven't truly been able to fully grasp the financial complications of brash actions. Yet admittedly to this day members of my own family in Arizona, where the social pressure is immense, openly denigrate this labor force, and refuse to identify themselves as Latinos.
It is shameful.
By the way, this is NOT just a Hispanic/Latino experience. Fortunately, those rallying tomorrow will span people of various races, colors and creeds.
Indeed, we should all be known as Americanosall, regardless of borders.
Today, I am motivated by the notion that someday my daughters will not only be the majority gender in this country-but the majority ethnicity as well. This would bring particular comfort to members of my family-born in Mexico-who have had to deny their Mexican heritage repeatedly over the past 75 years because of economic and social pressure. Those descendants didn't have to contend with Lou Dobbs, or Tom Tancredo in the media, but they, too, faced deportation because they were perceived as a threat, ironically in the depression era, to "American jobs."
Join me on Monday to be a empathetic friend to the many distant ethnic and economic cousins we all have in this country. If you cannot join, please reach out to the various state and local representatives in California, Arizona, Georgia, the U.S. Senate and Congress and remind them of the economic ramifications of this issue.
As children learn in their Spanish classes every week: "Gracias"
As my husband and I teach them every day:
"Vayas con Dios"
