Where do you call home?

So I ended up on BART today as my car was in the shop getting an oil change and new brake pads. I arrived at 24th and Mission Station and took the escalator up only to get hit with an enormous immigration policy protest. In San Francisco, you see protests almost every day of the year. It's part of our charm. Some are smaller (as in one person with a sign), some are larger depending on the event. Before the US invaded Iraq the last time, there were some major protests with riot police and helicopters and protesters getting hit with water cannons. I didn't see any violence today, but it's quite an impressive sight when you have thousands of people shutting down Mission Boulevard.

The immigrations protests over the last few weeks have brought forth an issue which many of us have not given much thought to or have chosen to ignore. The United States is kept running by the cheap labor of millions of illegal immigrants in this country. These immigrants are the people who work at the car washes, who use the leaf blowers on our streets, who construct our homes and roads, who raise our children, clean our homes, pick up our trash, and who work at McDonalds for minimum wage. Many of the illegal immigrants I know live 10 or 12 to a house and work 2 full time jobs, some over 80 hours a week. Still, on a daily basis they always smile, joke around, and are cheerful. If I was working 80 hours a week for minimum wage, there is no way in hell I would be smiling or cheerful. I have great respect for the work that they do and the long hours that they put in.

The United States is a nation of immigrants. Yes we have Native Americans, the few surviving ones that we immigrants didn't wipe out by disease or direct assault on their way of life. However, the rest of us checked in later. Our ancestors got here one way or another, stayed, created a life for themselves, and built this country into what it is today. I find it wholeheartedly hypocritical for people to suggest that we should close our borders and deport all illegal immigrants especially when their ancestors or parents or grandparents were welcomed with open arms. First off, this isn't practical. Our borders are thousands of miles long, are porous and cannot be sealed. Should we start building walls like the Israelis or the Russians? How about price? The cost of deporting 10 million people would be kinda pricey and impossible to do. Second, who would do all of the jobs that no Americans seem willing to do? If all companies were forced to pay living wage salaries to all employees, we would bankrupt 90% or more of the corporations in this country, the economy would collapse and inflation would skyrocket.

The point with which I take issue is that recent immigrants do not seem to want to assimilate into our culture or at least learn to speak basic English and learn our laws and customs. In Europe, many countries have the same issues with immigrant populations from Turkey, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and other regions. If you choose to leave your country for another, then you should make an effort to be a good citizen of your new home. In many of the protests that I have seen in person and on television, you see masses of Mexicans walking around with Mexican flags. I appreciate that they have pride in their culture, but in this case it's comical to see. Which Americans do they hope to gain sympathy from when they are marching around with a Mexican flag? I am the most Mexican friendly person you will find, but in this case, I am scratching my head. What are you all thinking? If you chose to leave Mexico, Brazil, China, Russia, or wherever you came from, then you should be working on your life here. Why did you want to leave your home country in the first place? What did you choose to make the USA your home? If you don't want to put forth any effort to give something back to the country that welcomed you, then go home. Perhaps we need to give more thought to making English the official language of the United States of America.

The legal immigration process to get into this country is a complete joke. Some people get approved immediately, some wait for 10 years or more, and others claim asylum or marry fraudulently to get a green card. The system is horribly flawed and in much need of an overhaul. If the protests of late have shown us one thing, it is clear that we need more discussion and dialogue on these issues with all people in this country. It needs to addressed in a civil and humane way that treats all people (regardless of where you were born) with dignity, courtesy, and timeliness.

Cuidate.