{"id":32688,"date":"2011-10-10T20:45:09","date_gmt":"2011-10-11T02:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=32688"},"modified":"2011-10-10T20:45:13","modified_gmt":"2011-10-11T02:45:13","slug":"my-father-had-to-get-in-the-back-of-the-line-so-should-everyone-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/10\/my-father-had-to-get-in-the-back-of-the-line-so-should-everyone-else\/","title":{"rendered":"My father had to get in the back of the line; so should everyone else"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Jim Spiri<\/p><\/div>\n

Immigration!\u00a0It is the hot-topic buzzword at the moment that no one really wants to talk honestly about. That is exactly why I must speak about it now. I have found in all my life experiences that dodging an issue only results in more complications down the road.<\/p>\n

For the record, I am the son of an immigrant. I am first-generation. My father first came to America working on a boat.\u00a0At one point, he was deported back to his native land because of improper documentation procedures. It took him another eight years to become a legal, naturalized citizen of the\u00a0United States of America.<\/p>\n

In 1963, eight years after I was born, my father became an American citizen. I explained this situation to my\u00a0New Mexico\u00a0House representative, Mr. Moe Maestas<\/a>, in September one afternoon on my lunch hour at a rally in support of\u00a0people without legal status\u00a0at the Roundhouse in\u00a0Santa Fe.<\/p>\n

I asked Representative Maestas a simple question. I inquired, \u201cMr. Maestas, I am the son of an immigrant who came here to this country improperly the first time and was forced to go back to his native land and return properly and go through the procedures, which took him another eight years. Why, sir, should these folks here be given special treatment and not be required to do the same thing?\u201d<\/p>\n

My representative, Mr. Maestas, negatively responded loudly that because my skin color appeared to be much whiter than his, my father was given special treatment. I then explained to Mr. Maestas that my father\u2019s skin color was actually a much darker shade than his own. (My father came from southern Italy.) At this, I appealed to Mr. Maestas\u2019 sense of legal matters (he is a lawyer by trade), and at that, he became negatively vocal and created a scene for all to see.<\/p>\n

I stood my ground, kept my cool, and realized, immigration issues are really hot topic in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Times are different than they were 40 years ago<\/h3>\n

I have known this all my life. I grew up near the border in\u00a0Do\u00f1a Ana County,\u00a0where I worked in the fields picking chile and learned much about my fellow workers and their native lands. In those days, many came over\u00a0legally\u00a0to work in the agricultural industry of Southern New Mexico, all usually under the watchful eyes of \u201cla migra,\u201d the Border Patrol who used to run around in green and white vans looking for people without legal status who were overstaying their welcome.<\/p>\n

Flash forward to 2011. Times are indeed much different than they were 40 years ago in the chile fields of Southern New Mexico. No one disputes the fact that New Mexico is overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of people without legal status who have overstayed their time here and are overburdening social infrastructure such as educational facilities, medical facilities, and police and first responders.<\/p>\n

It has become so out of control that the City of\u00a0Albuquerque just last week realized that it has had on its payroll as a fireman, for the past 10 years, someone without legal status who has a felony situation on his record.<\/p>\n

Probably the most critical component affecting immigration issues here in New Mexico is the drug war in the world\u2019s most dangerous city, Ju\u00e1rez, just a stone\u2019s throw across the border from New Mexico. All would also agree that the war being waged by the cartels is one main reason for the high influx of people without legal status continually flooding across the river daily into New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t focus only on Latin America<\/h3>\n

The immigration situation in New Mexico is broken. All agree.<\/p>\n

What most people here in New Mexico don\u2019t realize is that the flow of people without legal status entering into our state as well as our country is not and should not only be focused on those coming up from\u00a0Mexico\u00a0and other parts south. Actually, it is spread across a whole gambit of nations. People from all around the world realize that entering the United States\u00a0illegally\u00a0is relatively easy.<\/p>\n

There are tens of thousands of\u00a0illegal Chinese\u00a0entrants into this country every year that no one here in New Mexico ever talks about, not to mention those from other parts of the Orient that enter\u00a0illegally\u00a0to the United States, usually through\u00a0Hawaii. And, as some have noted, the\u00a0northern border\u00a0with\u00a0Canada\u00a0is a relatively easy point of entry for those seeking to come into our country\u00a0illegally\u00a0for one reason or another.<\/p>\n

So, what is my point here?<\/p>\n

The point is that\u00a0illegal entry\u00a0into the United States is not an issue limited to those coming from Mexico, as my Representative Moe Maestas may think. Perhaps he has stereotyped today\u2019s immigrants. Maybe he thinks only those from Mexico are important and should receive special treatment. I would strongly disagree with that.<\/p>\n

Illegal entry\u00a0into the United States is simply that. Illegal. My father found this out the hard way, was forced to turn around, go back, and come in through the front door and go through the process. This he accomplished long before the age of information and computers. He paid the price and went through the system. That is what everyone else should be forced to do.<\/p>\n

The solution<\/h3>\n

The concept of a simple fix to this problem is not that hard to grasp. We have all the capability necessary to round up probably over 90 percent of those here\u00a0illegally\u00a0at the moment. We could do this nationally in short order.<\/p>\n

Just as in the days when I was picking chile in Do\u00f1a Ana County, \u201cla migra\u201d can find and send them directly back over the border. Only this time, we shut the border down. We all know the wars in\u00a0Iraq\u00a0and\u00a0Afghanistan\u00a0are coming to an end. Whether we were successful or not in our goals there is a topic for discussion at a later date. However, we will have plenty of military resources available to at least secure our southern border from\u00a0Brownsville, Texas\u00a0to\u00a0San Diego, Calif., with U.S. Army infantry personnel as well as\u00a0Texas, New Mexico,\u00a0Arizona\u00a0and California\u00a0national guard members, who were originally set up to protect the domestic home front in the first place.<\/p>\n

Once this is accomplished, we then look at those desiring to come into this country, specifically from Mexico, and offer them something akin to \u201cmost favored nation status\u201d \u2013 only this time, regarding a guest worker program, we should up the quota maybe by a factor of four, to welcome those wanting to work in the agricultural areas where the need is.<\/p>\n

It may seem a painful first step; however, if we as a society do not take this immediate step, we no longer will be able to say that there is \u201croom for everyone living in the promiseland,\u201d as the song by Willie Nelson says.<\/p>\n

I would tell Mr. Maestas that I am not a racist. He should have realized that not all immigrants and first-generation Americans look alike. Had he stayed with the conversation longer he would have realized that my maternal grandfather was also an immigrant and came to Ft. Bliss in 1915, under general \u201cBlack Jack\u201d\u00a0Pershing\u00a0dealing with immigration issues along the border almost 100 years ago. However, my New Mexico House representative was too busy trying to gain some more undocumented Democrats to listen to me or anyone else that really wants to solve the problem of illegal immigration.<\/p>\n

Spiri is a combat war photographer and writer. Find him online at\u00a0jimspiri.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My father was deported back to Italy because of improper documentation procedures and had to get in the back of the line. It took him another eight years to become a legal, naturalized U.S. citizen. Others should have to go through the same process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1942,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[140,107,116],"class_list":["post-32688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-roundhouse","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1942"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}