First Place in the 1st Houghton Miflin “I Also Have a Dream Contest” 2004
“As a nation that values immigrants and depends on immigrants, we should have immigration laws that work and make us proud. Yet today, we do not. Instead we see many employers turning to the illegal labor market. We see millions of hard-working men and women condemned to fear and insecurity in a massive undocumented economy.”
Although the exact total is unknown, there is estimated to be over a million undocumented workers in the United States. Although it can be argued that these people are “criminals” for illegally entering our country, I believe that most of them are just people trying to work and in search of a better life. We heavily depend on these workers and they help boost our economy, yet we spend our time trying to evict them from our country as we continue to hire them. It doesn’t make sense. I think that if an undocumented alien has been working and contributing to our country for two years, they should be able to apply for legal residency. For the two years that they have to wait for legal residency, they should be granted a temporary work visa while they live and work in the United States.
One of the main reasons that I think it is so illogical to deny these people residency is the fact that we need workers here; they fill the jobs that are otherwise left unoccupied. I live in Napa, California; a moderately sized city known primarily for its wineries and vineyards. I know that if you go into one of the countless vineyards that we have here, the majority of people harvesting the grapes and doing other labor jobs would be of Mexican origin. It is well known that while many Americans do not want these jobs, many immigrants, such as Mexicans, do. As George Bush said in his address to Congress in early January, “Out of common sense and fairness, our laws should allow willing workers to enter our country and fill jobs that Americans are not filling.”
If you were a lower-income American, working at a steady job and paying your taxes, it would not be out of the ordinary or unjust to ask for a fair wage, the right to change jobs and be protected by the labor laws, as well as decent working conditions that the United States requires for everyone else, right? But how come decent, hardworking, Mexican immigrants who do everything you do are denied these rights? They should be able to live their lives without the constant fear of being deported. It is unfair that people should have to feel continuous terror, insecurity, and instability for trying to work and improve their life.
The Statue of Liberty, the welcome sign to the sore eyes of many immigrants as they enter America, says “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free ,the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Although I feel that these rights should be given to immigrants of all origins, I think that we as Americans have a moral obligation to people especially from our neighboring country, Mexico. Mexico has many economic problems; forty percent of their population is below the poverty line and they have a very high unemployment rate. A recent article in The Nation magazine titled “The View from Mexico” said that “In the countryside, we met farmers whose communities had been devastated by the importation of subsidized, cheap corn from US agribusiness corporations. Since the implementation of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), Mexico’s agricultural sector has lost at least 1.3 million jobs. In the community that we visited there were almost no young workers left on the farms. Most of them are either in the cities or in the United States illegally.” The people who travel north over the border are just looking for opportunities; they really have nowhere else to go to find these opportunities. We, as a wealthy, powerful country which actually has a need for these workers, whether it be as a waiter, construction worker, or grape harvester, don’t really have the right to deny them the right to work and support their families.
Many people are torn over this issue. In early January of this year, 2004, President Bush made a proposal to Congress relating to the issue of illegal immigrants in the United States. Although he did rally a group of supporters, there are still many people opposed to his ideas. People are saying that “these people don’t have a right to be here; they are criminals who have committed the crime of illegally entering the United States.” First of all, is it really such a crime to want a better life? Yes, according to our laws it is illegal for these undocumented people to come, but in their defense, why do we continue to hire them? We argue that they are coming to America and that they are breaking the law, but tell me why do they stay here? Because they are able to find jobs. It’s just that simple.
Some people deny the fact that this is our problem. It’s not our fault that their country is poor. Just because Mexico doesn’t have jobs doesn’t mean that we have to deal with Mexicans in America. However, the fact is that they are in our country and we need them. It is our problem now.
Just as it was with the massive immigration in the late nineteenth century, there are many consequences of having foreign people in the United States; “All the people here increase our crime rate,” or “they are lowering the wages because they are willing to work for less.” To respond to the safety issue, knowing who is in our country will allow us to have more control over our borders. As President Bush stated, “Our homeland will be more secure when we can better account for those who enter out country. Instead of the current situation, in which millions of people are unknown…law enforcement will face few(er) problems with undocumented workers and will be better able to focus on the true threats to our nation (.)” For people who are fretting about decreasing wages, our economy relies on these people. While it is true that the presence of these workers could possibly lower wages, it would be worth it in the long run because the truth is that without many of these workers, several of our industries would fail.
The situation that we are facing today is not that different than the one that African Americans faced forty years ago during the civil rights movement. We have a poorer, second class that is denied many of the rights that other people don’t even have to think twice about. These people are determined, hardworking, but have to struggle more to receive basic rights, and are viewed as lower-class in our society.
Napa is a town that has a fairly large population of Mexicans. I know from living here almost my entire life that many people regard Mexicans as second class. I live in a neighborhood that has many Hispanics and there is also a large population of Hispanics in the surrounding areas. I went to the nearby neighborhood elementary school which had the largest percentage of Mexicans out of all of Napa’s elementary schools. I think in my 5th grade class there were over twenty-five students in all, and in that there were only seven people, including myself, who weren’t of Hispanic origin. Occasionally, when people ask which school I went to and I answer “Shearer”, they say, “Oh,” in a condescending tone and quickly shift the conversation to a different topic. Even one of my friends, in a joking manner, referred to my elementary school as “the Ghetto School.” It might not be as blatant as it was during the civil rights movement, but there definitely is discrimination in our society today. People, whether they are illegal or legal, all deserve the same rights, no matter what. I think that if we had better laws regarding undocumented workers and their residency, it would have many positive effects. We just need to give people a chance. As Cesar Chavez, a courageous man who fought for the rights of farm workers, said, “We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community... Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.”
Amanda
8th Grade
River School