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"The Hispanics in the New Mexico area have been here longer than the US has been a country."

Actually, Hispanics settled in this continent long before Anglos. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the US.

"Which makes them NON immigrants. Hispanic American and illegal immigrant are two different concepts."

It may make them non-immigrants, but it doesn't allow them the use the term American, without the hyphen?

I tend to think they are "American" without the hyphen. I don't even believe in the word "Hispanic" because it means very little as a description. I know blue-eyed blond "Hispanics" who don't speak Spanish, I know dark "Hispanics" who call themselves Mexicans, live in the North and don't speak Spanish and have never been to Mexico. I know people who have a parent from Mexico, live right on the border, have never been to Mexico, and consider themselves only to be American. Also an illegal immigrant from Guatemala usually has very little in common with a 3rd generation middle class Cuban American who has more in common with a third generation middle class Polish American ---so to me it's a weird discription but people seem to use it.

You mean the oldest european settlement don't you? There is an town called ysleta in spanish near El Paso that has been continously settled for hundreds of years longer