Talking to the locals
During a recent forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters in San Leandro, California, I was invited to serve as a panelist for a seminar. The topic: Immigration in the United States. Serving on the panel were also an official from the Department of Homeland Security, a consular officer, a law professor and a representative from the local congressman’s office. The focus of the seminar was to educate the local folks on the current immigration issues facing the nation.
Explaining roles
The forum began with each panelist explaining his or her involvement in the immigration issue. The immigration official explained how tough it is to guard our borders against potential illegal invaders. He said that it is even tougher to catch illegals hiding on this side of the border. The law professor meticulously dissected immigration rules and regulations. The consular officer explained the process of interviewing immigrants at consular offices abroad. My role was to tell the story of the illegal immigrant.
The unforgiving desert
I told the story of a woman from El Salvador who braved the unforgiving desert to illegally enter the United States with her three young children. While remaining in the shadows, she worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week, cleaning houses to feed her three children. I also told of other similar stories of heroic immigrants doing the best they could to survive in the US I relayed their struggle to face enormous hardships while remaining productive members of our society.
Facing the feedback
After our talk we then answered questions from the audience. Almost immediately, one gentleman from the audience complained that immigrants are taking jobs away from US citizens. He was in his mid-sixties, a gray-haired, confident former soldier. He said that we make it too easy for anyone to come to the US and make money. And because of this, immigrants are stealing jobs from hard-working Americans. He added that nothing came easy for him; that he had earned his stripes the hard way. He argued that the government is not doing enough to preserve jobs for Americans.
Not necessarily a red-neck
One could easily have accused him of being an anti-immigrant or a bigot. But that man represents a wide section of our population who blames immigrants for some of our unemployment problems. As an immigrant, I could have easily painted that man as a narrow minded red-neck. But our response to this kind of immigrant scapegoating should be one of understanding and compassion.
Fear leads to scapegoating
Understand that people need scapegoats because they are afraid. When something is wrong, it’s time to look for someone to blame. This is a common human reaction. During times of crisis, people panic. And sometimes we irrationally place blame on others. This is our natural coping mechanism. According to the US Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey, there were 37,547,789 foreign-born folks in the United States, which represents about 12.5 percent of the total US population. That’s a large and easy target for those who want to pin the blame for our sagging economy.
Numbers are high because the need is great
So how do we respond to someone like that gentleman? First, let’s agree with him. Undocumented workers do work the farms and take American jobs. They pick the fruits and vegetables so that native-born Americans can eat. Immigrants work in hotels and make our beds, and many work in construction to build houses. But, these are all jobs that Americans shy away from. In 2006, of the 151.1 million workers engaged in the US civilian labor force, the foreign born accounted for 15.6 percent (23.6 million).
Telling the truth about immigrant workers
The second way we respond is to speak the truth. The plain truth is that many important sectors of our economy are dependent on legal and illegal immigrants. Our high-tech sectors are highly dependent on immigrants. In 2006, of the 22.2 million foreign-born civilians employed, age 16 and older, 27.2% worked in management, as professionals and in related high-earning occupations; 22.5% in service occupations; 18.3% in sales and office occupations; 16.7% in production and transportation; and 13.5 percent in construction, extraction, maintenance, and repair occupations.
Dirty little secret
One of our country’s dirty little secrets is that we welcome undocumented workers because they provide cheap labor. And without their participation, the American economy could very well find its wheels grinding to a halt. Our immigrant workers are an integral part of the nation’s economy. Ask the farmer whose crops are rotting in the fields. Immigrants are the cogs of many industries – agriculture, hospitality, construction, and manufacturing among them – that keep our nation a viable economic entity. Hundreds of companies would shut down without immigrant workers.
For our economy, for our morality
Additionally, we must realize that our immigrants, legal and illegal, pour billions of dollars into the American economy. They do so by paying sales taxes, as well as federal, state and local taxes – filling treasuries with little hope of reaping any benefit. Labeling immigrants as “job takers” is not only counterproductive, it paralyzes any effort toward immigration reform. The time has certainly come for a more thoughtful, compassionate, and civil discussion on immigration – for the sake of our economy, and for the sake of our morality.
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Lazaro Law Group, Professional Corporation represents immigrants all over the United States and the US Embassy in Manila. The firm’s offices are located in San Francisco, Fremont/Newark/Union City, and Sacramento, California. Attorney Johnson Lazaro can be reached at (415) 800-5775 or toll free at (855) 4-LAZARO. His email is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .a
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This article should not be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation. The information is intended to be general and should not be relied upon for any specific situation. This is not meant to create a lawyer-client relationship.
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