Franklin Delano Roosevelt once told an uncomfortable audience of the Daughters of the American Revolution that “we are all immigrants.” It is something that we should remember now when the scapegoating of immigrants is reaching a new height in this country.
California is leading the way in states that are proposing initatives that would deny public education and medical care to immigrants who are undocumented. Backers of the petition drive, “Save Our State,” say they have gathered over 600,000 signatures, and voters will consider the measure in November.
In addition to cutting off education to the children of illegal immigrants, the proposal would also require that teachers, health care workers, and the police report the presence of any “apparent illegal immigrants” they come across. Big Brother, your time has come.
California’s Governor Pete Wilson (whose mother’s parents were from Kerry) is leading the witchhunt in that state, primarily against the Mexicans. Wilson is suing the Federal Government for what he claims are millions of dollars that the state spent in providing welfare to, and educating the children of, illegal immigrants.
But really, what Governor Wilson is doing just amounts to cheap politics. Charles Pei Wang who serves on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, pointed out on a recent C-Span program on Civil Rights and Immigration, that since the state and federal school budget is based on daily average attendance, and given that there is a 45 percent high-school dropoout rate, “if they [the children of illegal immigrants] have enough courage to go to school, they benefit the system.” Another point made on the same program is that welfare is largely unavailable to illegal immigrants, many of whom also pay more money in direct and indirect taxes than they get in government services.
This point was further illustrated in a New York Times article, in which immigration experts criticized the state of California’s estimates “as one-sided fiscal calculations that ignore illegal immigrants’ economic contributions.” Many, they say, are taxpayers; all are consumers; some are even entrepreneurs.
Governor Mario Cuomo of New York has a better attitude towards immigrants than the California governor. “So many of the Irish, so many of the Italians who came when my parents came, were techinically illegal,” said the Governor (in the same Times article), who decided against suing the Federal Government to recover the cost of New York State’s social services to illegal immigrants. Cuomo felt that doing so would send the wrong message. “I love immigrants. Legal, illegal — they’re not to be despised.” (Tell that to the citizens of San Rafael, California, who threatened to boycott a food store unless the owner removed shopping bags that told of a Salvadoran boy’s harrowing account of crossing the U.S. border illegally).
California is not alone, the immigration debate continues to gather momentum across the country, with proposals for a national registry of everyone who is eligible to work in the United States, which would require the creation of a costly new Social Security card system. So much time and money and energy wasted on blaming immigrants which could be better spent on fighting real social ills.
And while I know it is an oversimplification to say that America in denying its immigrants is denying its heritage, is it also oversimplifying the matter to ask whether Americans are willing to do jobs that the immigrants, illegal and otherwise, do? Are the rest of us waiting in line to pick grapes and tomatos, to waitress, be nannies, busboys, doormen, and cab drivers? I don’t think so.
The first rung of the ladder to the American dream has always been reserved for the newcomers – the immigrants – who through hard work and the education of their children, move onto the next rung. That is the history of this great country. Who is going to take their place in years to come?
Think carefully before you vote.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the September/October 1994 issue of Irish America. ♦
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