Posted on 04/28/2006 11:01:45 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
IMMIGRATION DEBATE
One Hispanic Minuteman says it's matter of law, not a race issue
Al Garza says he's proud of his Latino heritage, his race. La raza, he calls it, shifting easily from English to Spanish.
But he said he's not about to join the protesters who have taken to the streets of Houston and other cities in recent weeks in demand of amnesty for illegal immigrants.
"Personally, I'm very disappointed in our own raza at what they're doing," said Garza, a Texas native who wants to end the flow of illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border.
"Just because I'm Hispanic doesn't mean I'm going to allow complete strangers trampling over property, vandalizing people's homes and ranches," he said.
Garza, former Texas president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and now the group's second-in-command, is one of the nation's most prominent Hispanic anti-immigration activists.
Ten percent of the Minutemen's 8,000 members are Hispanic, he said.
"This has nothing to do with race," said Garza, who was born in Raymondville in South Texas. "Anyone that has any racial agenda is not wanted in our group."
What matters, Garza says, is enforcing the law and getting control of the border. His view of illegal immigrants, some experts say, underscores long-held differences between American-born Latinos and foreign-born newcomers.
"There is a major divide between the immigrant community and the native community," said Guadalupe San Miguel Jr., a history professor at the University of Houston. "From the very beginning you see these differences, but over the years our differences have been maintained."
Indeed, some polls show that American-born Hispanics are more critical of immigrants than newcomers.
While the foreign-born are nearly unanimous in their belief that immigrants strengthen the U.S. with their talents and work ethic, native-born Hispanics are more divided.
Sixty-five percent say immigrants are a plus, but 28 percent say they are a burden, according to a 2005 study by the Pew Hispanic Center, a research group in Washington, D.C.
Differing opinions
Latinos' views vary widely depending on their socioeconomic status, country of origin, time in the U.S. and state of residence, said Rogelio Saenz, a sociology professor at Texas A&M University.
Some Hispanics try to "prove to society at large that they themselves are different, that they are not associated with immigrants," Saenz said.
While Hispanics tend to express positive attitudes toward immigrants, most do not support increasing the flow of legal immigration from Latin America, the Pew Hispanic Center said.
Spring resident John Martinez, 39, said that "when people think of Mexicans, they don't think of people like me." They think of the immigrant and the laborer, not someone who went to college and listens to pop radio, he said.
And when Houston students walked out of classes to protest a federal proposal to make illegal immigrants felons in late March, he said he was embarrassed by their defiance of the law, and said they in no way represented him.
Martinez said he was born in the U.S. and didn't have to go through the process of getting residency, "but I know that it's there and that people do what has to be done. I just think it demeans everything when those people are out there and they're expecting to have all the civil liberties and rights" as everyone else.
"This is not their country. What gives me the right to go to Mexico and demand those things that they're demanding?" Martinez said.
'There has to be a limit'
Another Hispanic who opposes increased immigration is Charles Esquivo, 87, a native Houstonian.
Esquivo, a World War II veteran and member of a group called Texans for Immigration Reform, said his main objection to illegal immigrants is he does not "want a group of people who are going to change the society."
His family's ancestry — his own ethnic background — was never important to him, he said. He's been to Mexico before, and "I don't see anything over there that I want," he said.
"There has to be a limit to the number of people who we are taking in. We can't take in all poor people, people who are being repressed," Esquivo said.
Absent a sizable, organized group of conservative Latinos who favor restrictions on illegal immigration, the rift among different segments of Latinos won't have much of a political impact, San Miguel Jr. said.
"In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a large segment of the (Mexican-American) community that saw (the Chicano movement) as too radical. But the movement still made gains," Saenz said. Moreover, today's immigrant movement has been national, versus regional, in focus and with a great deal of participation, he said.
Sentiment not new
During the Chicano movement, even the farm workers and Cesar Chavez were opposed to illegal immigration. They later changed their view and incorporated illegal immigrants into their fight.
Anti-immigrant sentiment among Hispanics isn't new.
The League of United Latin American Citizens opposed the Bracero Program, a binational temporary contract labor program initiated between Mexico and the U.S. in 1942, because of the exploitation of workers.
In 1954, LULAC supported Operation Wetback, the federal government's push to deport undocumented workers.
And the American G.I. Forum, a Mexican-American veterans-based group, had little sympathy for illegal immigrants, co-producing a study titled "What Price Wetbacks?" which maintained that these immigrants displaced American workers, damaged the health of the American people, harmed retailers and posed a security threat to the nation, according to the Texas State Historical Association.
These organizations later shifted their positions as civil rights advocates pushed to incorporate all Hispanics.
Saenz said that while third-, fourth- and fifth-generation Hispanics may try to distance themselves from immigrants, divisions in the community won't likely hurt the pro-immigrant movement.
"The majority of Latinos tend to oppose the most restrictive parts of the immigration bill," San Miguel Jr. agreed.
"Many people really believe undocumented people are here because of U.S. actions, immigration policies" and a demand for cheap labor, he said.
"People know the United States' (foreign) policies in Central America and Latin America have contributed to disruptions, and that's why they leave."
cynthia.garza@chron.com
Was that your comment that the moderator deleted? Unfreakin believable.
"If any of you don't VOTE for the GOP, you will be speaking spanish very soon."
I've been voting GOP, and I've had to learn Spanish. This illegal alien situation is largely a creation of Republicans, imho. So, I don't think this statement of yours is going to prove too terribly effective in keeping the hoi polloi in line, should a viable alternative present itself. And, that's a real shame. You have no one to blame but yourselves. There is still time to undo some or most of the damage, but the will does not appear to be there. Blaming the voters for their dissatisfaction with the party is not going to prevent anything.
You are correct!
Republicans and democrats are the same. They both sold us out for the highest vote.
BTTT
The talking points posters here somehow think that we can't see how the Pubs are intentionally bringing about their own demise.
Import 30 million socialists and expect them to vote Pub. Defies all logic!
After their first demand protest and all their Mexican flags, a LOT of people have already had enough. They're not just "upset", they're already outraged.
If May first is even more "in your face", there's going to be a back lash 100x greater than the queer marriage fiasco.
"Import 30 million socialists and expect them to vote Pub. Defies all logic!"
They're basically going on strike, on a socialist "holiday." Doesn't bode well, as far as any expectation of their presumed future voting patterns.
These fools should be demonstrating in Mexico City against the Mexican government's corruption, not here in the U.S.
Let's get Mexico back together, people will want to stay there.
I like President Bush as a person. I really do, but these last few years have been a total sell out to socialism. Now, the entire Republican Party is sitting back and doing nothing while the illegals are not only trashing our country, rewriting our Anthem, sucking up our fiscal recourses, but now they're DEMANDING we bow to their will.
I'm sorry, but I've voted Republican all my voting life. I'd like to see one more Constitutional judge on the Supreme Court, but I do plan on switching to the libertarian party. I do not agree with their social stand at all, but 50% of the pie is better than none. There comes a time when a party no longer represents it's base, and I think that time has arrived.
I've long believed that a lot of our foreign aid would be better spent in Mexico.....IF the power down there were in the hands of the people.
Let's all just turn a blind eye to their current behaviors and just hope, hope, hope and wish, wish, wish, they become good little conservatives.
"Let's all just turn a blind eye to their current behaviors and just hope, hope, hope and wish, wish, wish, they become good little conservatives."
If the pro-business contingent that supports amnesty, thinking that they're getting a nearly endless pool of docile little worker bees on the cheap, doesn't get a clue from their striking on May Day, for crying out loud. They're going to unionize, that much is crystal clear. There goes the cheap, there goes the docile and there goes the Republican party's majority, because they'll be a Democrat voting bloc to rival black people, as far as overwhelming support for the Democrat party.
Our money to build a democracy in Iraq would be better spent in Mexico City. Mexico has a lot of resources, but its corrupt gov't keeps its citizens poor and uneducated.
Our money to build a democracy in Iraq would be better spent in Mexico City. Mexico has a lot of resources, but its corrupt gov't keeps its citizens poor and uneducated.
"I've long believed that a lot of our foreign aid would be better spent in Mexico.....IF the power down there were in the hands of the people."
I've long believed that a lot of our foreign aid would be better spent in the United States of America.
Al Garza is a local down here, he knows the truth of our border situation and that his opponents use the race card all the time.
According to the Neil Cavuto show, Americans pay more in taxes each year to the government than they do on their own food, clothing, and housing. We support over half the population in one way or another.
In California, 60% of health care costs are for illegals. Schools have to teach illegal children English before they can teach them anything else, draining the recourses for American children.
Funny where I grew up Americans were just like me. Only they made the world's greatest tamales at Christmas time. That's how I remember them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.