Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Bob Shemeligian: Immigrants need a hand, not a fist

GIVE me your tired, your poor," reads the inscription at the base of Lady Liberty.

The words are from a sonnet by poet Emma Lazarus.

For 110 years, the Statue of Liberty, a national monument, has remained a symbol of welcome -- a gesture of friendship -- to immigrants throughout the world.

But look closely at Liberty's face. Her eyes and mouth have always appeared to be shut. In recent months her face seems to have taken on an expression of insouciance, to coin a French phrase.

After all, Lady Liberty wasn't born in America. She is of French origin.

In this way, she is much like all of us.

"Everyone in America is an immigrant, whether their relatives came here a few years ago or 20,000 years ago," says Vicenta Montoya, a Las Vegas immigration attorney. "Even 'native Americans' came here from another land."

It is disputed whether American Indians crossed over to this country from the Bering Strait tens of thousands of years ago or they were born here.

But no one argues that the vast majority of Americans have ancestors from Europe, Asia, Africa and other faraway places.

Why then are so many of us who live here so callous to the treatment of legal and illegal aliens today?

Consider the recent story about the clubbing of Leticia Gonzalez by Riverside County sheriff's deputies in Southern California on Monday.

The clubbing made headlines because it was videotaped by news crews in helicopters.

Gonzalez, 32, of Xocheca, Mexica, was one of 21 people suspected of sneaking across the border in a battered pickup truck. The truck reached speeds of 100 mph before being stopped by deputies.

The wounds on the neck and back of Gonzalez were still fresh and still very sore when Ron Prince, co-author of Proposition 187, which would deny undocumented aliens publicly funded services, offered his insight:

"Hopefully, it (the beating) sends a message that we do not want more illegal immigration to California."

Yes, Ron, I'm sure Leticia got the message.

And so did many others.

"It's gotten very ugly with the way we treat aliens," Montoya says.

If you don't believe our hysteria over illegal immigration has reached grotesque proportions, ask an American who has been mistaken for an illegal immigrant.

Shari Dunfee, 45, a Las Vegas SUN and Review-Journal classified sales representative, noted that she and a friend were scared out of their wits last September when they were confronted by Immigration and Naturalization Service agents in Escondido, Calif.

Dunfee and her friend had pulled over on the shoulder of the road to read a map. The agents pulled in front of them headlight to headlight.

"Whenever I see a patrol car, I wave," Dunfee said. "Well, they weren't waving back. These guys were scary. I don't want to say they were rude, but they're very firm."

The experience, Dunfee says, was a "jolt of reality."

"I have blonde hair and blue eyes. I wonder what would have happened had I looked like an illegal alien."

But what does an illegal alien really look like?

"People think in terms of color," Montoya says. "We have lots of people who come in from Canada, but because they look like a lot of other Americans, people don't think of them as illegal aliens."

In other words, in many cases the resentment some Americans have toward illegal aliens is a subtly masked resentment of people of color.

Don't be fooled by arguments such as "they're taking our jobs."

Many Americans wouldn't take jobs commonly held by immigrants from other countries.

We're talking about jobs as cooks and counter help in fast-food restaurants, jobs as maids and porters in hotels, jobs as convenience store clerks and as attendants in nursing homes.

"I know there are Americans who work hard, but for many others in this country, the work ethic isn't there," Montoya says. "And I think it's also true that many people from other countries are willing to work harder for lower wages."

Perhaps this is another reason many people have so much resentment toward immigrants.

It's not just the color of their skin -- it's the fact that they would work so hard at jobs most of us wouldn't want.

In other words, they make us look bad.

Let's hope the videotape of the beating of Leticia Gonzalez causes many Americans to stop and think just how bad we look in the eyes of the world in our treatment of illegal aliens.

And let's also hope that our lawmakers in Washington who are devising a bill that would revamp the nation's legal and illegal immigration laws remember two things:

* All Americans are immigrants or descendants of immigrants.

* Barring illegal aliens from attending public schools and cutting off federally funded health care make good headlines, but they don't address an underlying problem behind the recent avalanche of immigration to America.

Perhaps our lawmakers should devote more time and research to determining why so many people want to come here.

"People do not come here voluntarily because they love America," Montoya says. "Nobody wants to be separated from his or her family or country and come to another place where there are problems with violence and drugs."

Often, they come to America because their countries have become intolerable places to live.

Only by expanding our efforts to help other countries improve their standards of living will we reduce the influx of immigration to America.

It certainly makes more sense than swinging at immigrants with batons.

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