What do Hispanic citizens think of illegal immigration?

[vssmith]

I wonder what side our Hispanic citizens come down on illegal immigration. They waited and did things according to law--what do they think about the illegals in that light? Are they bitter about wage competition? Or do they feel that the big push against illegals is racial bigotry.

[treestar]

1. They may not have waited

1) they may be US citizens, and their ancestors may have been in what is now the US long before yours
2) they could be here now as a result of the 1986 amnesty
3) the virtue of "waiters" is overrated. They have something to wait for. Many Mexicans will never qualify, and even if they do, the per country quotas put a ceiling on the already existing quotas and the wait now means we get immgrants well over 50 by the time their turn comes.

[firefox_fan]

2. I suspect that somebody who went through the legal path would resent..

Those who did not and now demand to become citizens.

[Kali]

3. My experience is that Repuke Hispanics are very much anti-illegal imigration

and progressive, liberal Hispanics are much more sympathetic to the plight if immigrants, both legal and illegal. Obviously there are differences even in those generalizations.

[mrcheerful]

4. From the hispanics I talked to, they get the impression that all americans born white can't tell th

difference from an illegal to a legal immigrant. All brown people are illegal even the ones born in families that came into the US 200 years ago. Remember to most american racists of today, the US only had white people in it until those nasty illegals started jumping the borders.

[UTUSN]

5. Depends on which ones you ask.

Like any other group, they are not monolithic. They are just as diverse by economic and class status as anybody else. Those who were not already here and went through the "legal" route might be just as I-got-mine-CLOSE-THE-DOOR as O'LOOFAH, HANNITY, MALKIN, and TANCREDO. If they are Union organizers they would very well be anti-undocumented. (Just think of the irony of Cesar CHAVEZ being close to RFK and Teddy being the propeller, with La Raza, for the latest legalization bill.) Likewise, the "assimilatist" LULAC types, who believe in melting into the Anglo pot. The older generation of FDR-HST-LBJ types are more likely to be pro, more likely to be for all of the Great Society benefits FOR OTHERS that THEY don't qualify for.

[EFerrari]

11. My extended family is split down the middle. The liiberals

stand with the workers, all workers and the conservatives do not. Makes family dinners interesting. :evilgrin:

[SmileyMarie]

6. My German immigrant MIL is very unhappy with illegals

Her mother had to jump through a lot of hoops to escape Nazi Germany. For her I don't think it has anything to do with job competition but in having respect for another country's sovereignty.

[newyawker99]

9. Hi SmileyMarie!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Who peiople from mexicoan origun

perhaps central americans,

Cuubans

How about people from South America

Puerto Ricans (Yes they are Americans but are lumped anyhow)

those born in the US, from families going back to oh the 1700s

This is NOT a single block

I can only speak for myself, as an immigrant from Mexican descent that jumped ALL the damn hoops

It is AN EMPPLOYER problem, fine the employers, and fine the heavily, conficatory fines are fine by me as well

The problem will go away overnight

What I think is that there is a lot of racism involved, since most ilegals are not even Mexican or latin american, shocking I know. Many are Euroopeans who came in with visas and ahem overstayed them.

It is the fear of the dark catholic, and I am not shitting you when I say that

[cosmik debris]

8. Those that I know in Texas

see it as another example of white supremacist bigotry. America has opened its doors wide to the fair skinned and abused the darker skinned people. That is American History as many local Hispanics see it. But remember, Texas used to be a part of Mexico. The White men came in and stole it from Mexico and subjugated the non-White population. Hispanics have lived in Texas since the mid 16th century, long before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.

But that is certainly not the universal perspective. The Hispanic community is not monolithic on this issue. If you need proof, remember that Alberto Gonzales is a Texas Hispanic.

[WorldTraveler777]

10. As a Latina, I can say opinions are mixed.

Personally, in my family, we feel like undocumented immigrants to this country add to it and should be welcome. We have many family members who came to the U.S. 'illegally' and they and their children have contributed greatly to the U.S. (Mind you, I'm very biased and selective in my opinion).


For a broader view, The Pew Hispanic Center did a survey (pdf) and found:

-- An overwhelming majority of Latinos (80%) say that immigrants today strengthen the
United States because of their hard work and talents while only a small share (14%) say
they are a burden because they take jobs, housing and health care. The breadth of this
positive assessment differs according to respondents’ nativity. The foreign born are
nearly unanimous (89% vs. 5%) in taking a positive view of immigrants while the native
born are somewhat more divided (65% vs. 28%).

-- Asked specifically about undocumented or illegal migrants, most Latinos (68%) say they
help the economy by providing low-cost labor rather than hurt the economy by driving
wages down (23%). The foreign born are again more positive (76% vs. 15%) than the
native born (55% vs. 34%).

--Although an overwhelming majority of Hispanics expresses positive attitudes toward immigrants, relatively few Hispanics favor increasing the flow of legal immigration from Latin America and a significant minority, concentrated among native-born Latinos, is concerned that unauthorized migrants are hurting the economy.

[AZBlue]

12. I'm not Hispanic but I can tell you what a few of my friends think of it.

It pisses them off. They waited and went through all the legal wrangling of becoming a legal citizen and they don't like it when someone who cheats and breaks the law and gets the same benefits they do. I'd be pissed off too.

[Cleita]

13. I am an American citizen and a Hispanic.

I do feel it's racially motivated because it's only recently that there has been a big brouhaha about it. Here in California we have been working or living side by side with other Hispanics whether legal or illegal since the turn of the last century and no one was really concerned about them as long as they were otherwise law abiding. It's when they started spreading to the other states who have never had large Hispanic populations that this suddenly became a problem.

Just the posts that are made about them on other websites about them urinating in public or leaving dirty diapers at parks and beaches, making them out to be dirty people reeks of racism. Even the accusations of them taking jobs doesn't really ring true with me because there are many other illegals from other countries who also take jobs from Americans and no one seems to care. Also, many of the Hispanics that you see working are first and second generation, born here, yet they are lumped in with the immigrants just because they look like them.

Also, as long as our country props up corrupt regimes in Latin American countries with elitist public officials who do nothing to bring social and labor reforms to their countries, we will always have a problem. Yet, when a leader of a country like Venezuela's Chavez tries to improve the lot of the working classes, we try to assassinate them. Go figure.

[bamacrat]

14. There are some who dont want them here.