[Tijeras_Slim]

Not here in New Mexico. The old families have been here for 300+ years and don't like anyone who's showed up since 1847, no matter where they come from.

[Happy2BMe]

Good editorial.

IMHO American Hispanics fully understand that their way of life if directly threatened by the illegal alien invasion from Mexico.

More of them need to speak out on the subject . .

================================

But for those familiar with U.S.-born Hispanics, the results of polls and surveys will come as no surprise.

This is a community that doesn't take lightly matters of law and order or condone the fact that there are those who break the rules while others follow them.

And it is full of people who have been known to, on occasion, resent those who — once they get here — defiantly, or lazily, refuse to assimilate by learning English and blending into the mainstream the way their parents and grandparents did.

[Brilliant]

If they don't like illegal immigration, then why do they keep electing politicians who support it?

[RoadTest]

This issue has nothing whatsoever to do with prejudice of any kind.

A nation must secure its borders. Is there anything hard to understand about that?

[hispanarepublicana]

For one thing, those left-leaning Hispanic advocacy groups only confuse things when they try to speak about an issue on which they don't speak for the majority of Hispanics.

bttt

[RichardW]

I think only an ignoramus would claim there is no prejudice toward Hispanics because of this problem. There is. But I also believe that most real Americans believe our borders ought to be secured -- period. There is no excuse for what is going on. If people, from anywhere, want to come here to work or visit, that is fine, but at least we ought to know who they are, where they are, and that they leave when it is their time to leave. Why the politicians don't understand this, I'll never know.

[HiJinx]

Good editorial...worth the read and remembering.

[television is just wrong]

I know. there are a lot of people who are Hispanics, who do NOT want this illegal alien thing going on. Mexico, and Mexicans still down there look at them as traitors to their cause because they have assimilated. They know that it is better up here, and want to preserve their way of life.

[azhenfud]

"native-born Latinos are less enthusiastic about immigration than the foreign born."

Why?

Because the "native-born" consider themselves AMERICANS. Period.

[BIRDS]

Most people accept and agree with you as to subtle, individual differences BUT you of "Hispanic heritage" should realize that the culture that is represented by most who are Hispanics is one that excludes other races, has a certain socialism involved ("we all help each other" which is what I hear routinely from Hispanics and yet, based upon all the need I see among Hispanics, looks like they aren't, in fact, "all helping each other" but only saying so).

I'm just saying, that Hispanics have brought this presumption on themselves. If you are going to be an American, then be an American but most Hispanics instead promote their Hispania before anything else, including the whole Spanish language thing (the United States isn't Spain), and impose a cultural imperative on others that excludes, overrides, others (the resetting of car radios to Spanish stations at car washes nationwide is hardly the act of rare Hispanic bandits, but it's a cultural statement is what it is).

Most others are not prejudiced so much as we are now generalists and Hispanics mostly seem more interested in lecturing everyone else about some aspect of Hispania than they are in conversing or even commisserating about shared, American troubles.

So, although what you write is accurate to a degree, you should also realize Hispanics have earned a degree of this type of social animosity and presumption based upon the fact that MOST ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARE HISPANIC.

If you want to change THAT culture, you could. I think it would be immensely helpful if Hispanic Americans, citizens and legal residents, would and could act on behalf of America and not on behalf of "Hispanic culture."

BUT, I do know factually that it is a shared cultural presumption BY HISPANICS that immigration to the U.S. is some sort of cultural "right" and there is little respect otherwise by many about immigration laws.

Mexico could begin instructing it's citizens that breaking the laws of other countries is bad behavior, the culture could begin to pick up on that fact and percolate that change throughout, but instead it seems that today, to be Hispanic is to be engaged in illegal behavior.

The only way to change that is to change the Hispanic culture. And, stop insisting on the Spanish language, as if imposing upon the land, because we are not going to become a Spanish language nation -- our first language is English and is going to remain English.

I'm saying here that Hispanics should try and understand the negative presumptions because Hispanics have certainly brought it upon themselves. Otherwise, change your fellows.

[NRA2BFree]

I've lived in 'New' Mexico most of my life, so needless to say I have many friends who are Hispanic. We've discussed the illegal immigration problem, and they are in no way loyal to Mexico. They are totally opposed to illegal immigration, whether they're from Mexico or Pakistan. Tax dollars to support all of the ones who end up on any welfare program comes out of their checks too. In fact, they resent the illegals because it's creating an animosity toward some of them, where they was never a problem before.

[judgeandjury]

Some of their proposed cures — like stationing the National Guard on the border or scrapping the 14th Amendment so as to deny U.S. citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants — are worse than the disease.

Actually there's no need to scrap the 14th Amendment. Its original intent was not to give citizenship to somebody just because they were born in the United States. We need to start applying the 14th Amendment as it was originally intended to be applied.