The “American Dream,” every politician’s favorite sympathy generator, has been used ad nausem in the most recent immigration debate.
While the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. has declined slightly since 2007 according to the 2011 census, the tangible American Dreams of the 11.5 million illegals currently living in the U.S. remain on the razor’s edge.
But for some 800,000 young illegal immigrants, President Obama’s recent executive order forwent the inevitable Republican filibuster and halted their potential deportations, bringing their dreams one step closer to realization.
I got a first-hand experience with the issue of immigration in the fields near my Southern Idaho hometown. However, it is difficult to consider issues of national importance at 4:30 a.m.
I bit the far-too early bullet for precious summer employment, filling in for a field-crew boss at a seed company. After falling asleep my first day, I arrived exhausted the following day to drive my crew of seven Latino ladies out to walk fields. Only one spoke English, so communication was
mostly gestures. The topic to breach the language barrier was utterly surprising.
Prompted by a local Ron Paul supporter’s banner clinging to the “Obama’s-not-actually-American” argument, we talked politics. Their insights proved to be simple, poignant reminders that somewhere beneath the political posturing of elected officials, lie people and real problems.
The unavoidable issue — immigration — was summed up simply in broken English.
“We want to work.”
‘My’ crew–I had about the authority of Prince Harry in Parliament–were all legal immigrants, but legal or not, they said it is about a better life.
They come to do back-breaking, minimum-wage work in agriculture and other base-level industries just for the supposed opportunity of America. These seven ladies are the cheap labor keeping food prices low–cheap labor that consists, overwhelmingly, of immigrants, many illegal. It is a mind-numbing job anyone can do, but no one can do forever. It breaks your back, leathers your skin and leaves you without much time or energy.
Now, liberal defenders say white Americans would not take these jobs. I am proof otherwise. White Americans can do this work.
For about a week.
My week in the fields was plush too the ladies told me. I got more than minimum wage, a nine-hour work day, and ample breaks, a far cry from many of the other jobs some of the ladies had previously.
Immigrants like these, legal or not, should epitomize the American Dream.
Instead, the “American Dream,” is being jealously guarded by white America who refuses to acknowledge the value of immigrants to our economy, instead relegating them all as illegals–criminals come to steal their jobs.
Changes to quiet agricultural communities have created problems, but mostly they have created fear over the loss of control. And fear breeds generalized statements, which are mistakes.
Not all Mexicans coming to town are gang bangers.
“There are bad people everywhere,” the youngest of my crew, who is off to community college this year, told me.
Bad eggs are a product of the human element, not the Mexican or immigrant one. For every gang member there are hard-working Latinos like my crew.
Illegal immigration is undoubtedly a crime and a problem to be addressed, but that really isn’t the issue. Immigrating legally could be streamlined and deportations of hard-working Americans could stop, but instead people are lost amongst political rhetoric. America cannot call itself the melting pot while the racist fears of so many, especially here in Idaho, persist.
This is not a white nation, it’s everyone’s. The problem is that the people actively seeking a real American Dream–not a partisan abstraction– are the wrong color.
Dylan Brown can be reached at [email protected]