Fight bigotry against immigrants

Fight bigotry against immigrants
by Carlos T Mock, MD
Published as a Letter to the Editor Chicago Free Press April 5, 2006

As a Latino living in Chicago, I find the current immigration crisis quite distressing. It is as if we as a nation have not learned from our past mistakes.

The Europeans came to this country escaping persecution. As soon as they set a foot on the New World, they introduced killer diseases to the indigenous population and cheated them of their land. With the slogan of “eminent domain,” they expanded from the Atlantic to the Pacific, buying, stealing and fighting wars to get more territory.

The Irish Potato Famine in 1846-1850 was the first grand-scale immigration problem to the new republic. Starving families that could not pay their landlords faced no alternative but to leave their country in hopes of a better future. Thus, the steady flow of Irish who entered the U.S. between 1820 and 1830 skyrocketed in the 1840s. Nearly 2 million came in that decade. The trend persisted for another five years, as the first immigrants began to earn the means of sending for relatives and friends. Many Americans during this time held the view that Irish-Americans were dirty, lazy and stupid. They were credited for the economic problems and the degradation of American society.

Discrimination did not stop with the Irish. As they were being assimilated into our society, we fought a Civil War to free slaves, yet it was not until the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s that the African American population gained some basic rights. Many Americans during this time held the view that African Americans were dirty, lazy and stupid. They were credited for the economic problems and the degradation of American society.

Today, the plight is with the Latino. We have approximately 12-million undocumented workers in our country (primarily Latino), and we do not know what to do with them. Many Americans today hold the view that Latinos are dirty, lazy and stupid. They are credited for the economic problems and the degradation of American society. Bigotry this time requires that we build a wall to keep our neighbors to the south from entering our country.

Behind these new issues of immigration, we also have the plight of the LGBT community. We have Juana Ortiz (not her real name) who works 12-hour shifts at a sweatshop. She met Mariana at work. Soon they started spending all their time together. A romance grew. They each had one child from a previous marriage. Both children were born in the USA.

Mariana was deported one day from the workshop (luckily Juana called in sick that day). Juana now has to care for both of the children. Meanwhile, Mariana is trying desperately to reunite with her family. At the same time that Mariana exhausts all the legal ways to enter the U.S., she is raising money to be smuggled into this country. Mariana has not seen her family in five years. Juana is afraid to go visit her girlfriend because if she leaves the country, she will not be able to return. Juana lives in fear. Fear of losing her children if she’s caught, fear for her partner, fear for her children who have lost one mother already and could easily lose the second one.

Within the next two weeks, the Senate will decide the fate of tough legislation aimed at restricting illegal immigration. I say that Juana Ortiz and Mariana Rivera are not dirty, lazy or stupid. They are not the cause of the economic problems and the degradation of American society. It is up to the U.S. Senate now to make sure that true American families get a chance to realize the American dream. Please write them and let them know.