Yes, They Can

Prejudice co-mingled with public policy produces an ugly result. The legislation tends to exclude, attack, and limit, rather than address an issue. In our history of being a nation of immigrants, we have examples. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 suspended immigration for ten years, and made the Chinese ineligible for US Naturalization. Passage of this law was akin to taking aim and firing at the men who had left culture, family and language behind to build the railroad, dredge levees, plant and cultivate farms and orchards on land they legally could never own. In 1902, the act was extended and the Chinese were declared permanently illegal for Naturalization. The Chinese were not allowed to own property, bring their families over, or go to public school. Without wives or companionship, they lived in Chinatowns or a place like Locke, becoming little more than anonymous laborers. Their sweat and heartache was the basis of wealth for the white ruling class in this nation. Henry Huntington's mansion in Pasadena was made possible by their toil as they built the railroad. The law was not repealled until 1943, when Chinese were finally eligible for naturalization.

Last weekend, the 500,000-strong march on Los Angeles to protest the current slew of immigration reforms, brought past discriminations to mind. Like the Chinese Exclusion Act, parts of these new laws are smarmy because they reinforce sterotypes on an official level. But those who wrote them would disagree. Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, as reported by the AP, said that his only aim was to "stop people from exploiting illegal immigrants for cheap labor, drug trafficking and prostitution." As if those nannies, gardners, painters and ditch diggers are only a front. The money orders sent out to families waiting in far flung places in small towns with dirt roads are actually cover-ups for covert terrorist action. Some propose building a fence, a concept akin to The Great Wall of China, The Berlin Wall. Their vision: the USA as a gated community.

So what do we do? They're already here. It's as if the party has started, but the politicians just noticed. But laws ought to be crafted not for political gain. Criminalizing will only lead us into a further quagmire. Who pays for it? State? Cities? Feds? I'm not an advocate of gifts on silver platters, but keep in mind that the more we separate us from them, the harder it is to join the mainstream so that they can be active in shaping our communities.

The educational system is strained; a victim of too many demands. The healthcare system hobbles along in chronic insolvency. Though illegals are not the sole reason why these poorly run and underfunded bureacracies are ailing, they do place a fiscal burden on them. Why? Because education and healthcare are the two things poor people need the most, regardless if they're a citizen or not.

Unless the guest worker program has provisions to deduct a special tax for both healthcare and education that's proportionate to what they'll need, this situation won't change. But even if it does, just as it is for citizens, the difficulty will be the expense. Lacking a universal healthcare system, a typical family of four pays $600.00 a month for insurance. Coupled with an educational tax, it's not going to be easy, and it points to the fact that for all the finger-pointing being done right now, no one in Congress has found a way to work with insurers and other healthcare industries to bring in affordable healthcare for everyone. There won't be any easy answers, and the solutions aren't going to be workable for everyone. Perhaps the only certainty is this: education served as the path for Chinese immigrants, and it should do the same for present day immigrants.

There are those who claim that because of them the standards have dropped. And though their sheer numbers in some cities have overwhelmed services, the real culprits are Joe and Amy America. They let standards drop by not paying attention and never questioning conventional wisdom spewed by TV pundits, liberal, religious, and conservative idealogues because they were too busy buying a new minivan or watching "American Idol" to vote in city, state or federal elections. Without their votes on a local level, libraries, schools, parks, art programs --the things that contribute to a good community, have withered. Do they want standards to rise? Then they can start by voting.

Looking at the photo of the white shirts at City Hall and the Chinese laborers that came in the late 1800's, I realized that they had something in common. They're here because they want to be somebody. Their desire to be here wasn't diminished by the harsh heat of the Sonoran desert, nor does it dissipate while watching other people's children or moving rocks in yards. Though some might be lacking in either skill or language, what they do now has nothing to do with the promise in their soul.