From America, With Love

Victor Bahena and Brenda Ibarra 9/20/2006 A.M. Donaldson English III & IV

When did members of your immigrant group first begin coming to the United States? They were already here before the United States even existed.

- When did immigration from this country (or countries, as appropriate) reach its peak? Why? It was mainly in the1900’s because of the economic boom in the US.

-At that point, why did this group want to leave their country, and what were they looking for in America? They wanted to work to support their families and themselves. They wanted to have the American dream of a home to raise their family in and money to take care of them.

-Has America welcomed them or rejected them? Why? American has rejected them because there is so much racism. People also believe that they are less than human. Yet, they are needed so that they can do the jobs that no ones want to do.

-How did they travel to the United States? Where did they enter or land upon arrival? In the beginning, they would just walk through places like El Paso, Texas to go to work. That was the main entry.

-Where has most of this group settled in the United States? Why? Now a day, most of the Mexican immigrants settle in California, Texas, and Illinois. They settle in places like these because there is a lot of field and factory work.

-What social, linguistic, economic and cultural hardships have these immigrants faced? In American right now, there is so much animosity towards immigration of Mexicans. People are become bitter about having to deal with people that can’t speak English, which automatically makes you stupid and ‘lower’ then us ‘real’ Americans. Socially, American have been know to use illegals as ‘workhorses’, due to the lack of labor laws for them and their true need for the job. In a weird sense, Mexicans have become the backbone of what Americans base their true needs on; people doing our dirty jobs without judgments. Economically, Mexicans do better in the short term by being paid in cash without having taxes pulled out, but they no longer have the security that Americans have with social security and retirement. I truly believe that Americans can never truly have an idea on how hard it is to come to a country, which hates you for the things that you have been stereotyped to be, learn to function in a country without any bit of knowledge of it; then make a life for yourself.

- Is there a job or jobs that many members of this group typically perform in the United States? Why? The main jobs that they perform are maintenance, farming, and hard labor like cleaning, packing, and care giving. They take these jobs because they are willing to be paid lower than an American, they tend to learn things faster, and they keep to themselves due to the language barrier.

-What kinds of laws have governed their migration, work and citizenship opportunities, and how have these laws changed over time? Well, in the late 60’s and early 70’s, there seemed to be a type of open border for Mexican workers to come and go as they pleased. Then in the 80’s and now there has been a type of revolt against Mexicans. This caused the Amnesty Act to be revised to the point where only a certain number of people can come to the country a year. They have also made the applicant for American citizenship longer and more difficult to pass. Laws are also being enforced for companies and businesses that hire illegals can be severely punished with fines and even sent to jail.

-Have many of these immigrants sought to become citizens? When were they given the opportunity to do so? In the past 2 years alone, 8 million Mexican have applied for Green Card status and last year about 1 million Hispanics became US citizens. The first Mexican American citizens weren’t actually voluntary; it was after the Mexican- American War and America had claimed Texas as US citizens.

-Are large numbers of this group still emigrating to the U.S.? Why or why not? Yes, there are a lot of Mexicans migrating to the US because of the corruption of the government and the lack of work that is going on in Mexico. Yet, because of our idiot president putting so much attention on the Southern border instead of things like social security, healthcare, and ‘real’ homeland security, there are now National Guards on border patrol. It makes it harder to emigrant but it’s not stopping it