It’s no longer possible to deny that there is a crisis unfolding at our southern border. Thousands of migrants are making their way north from central America, including hundreds and hundreds of unaccompanied children, some as young as six years old.
It’s impossible to watch the crisis unfold and not feel it tug at your heartstrings. And yet, the hostility of Republican politicians to the migrants seems to be growing by the day, as they use the crisis to attack President Biden. And it’s having an impact on their voters: 77 percent of Republicans now say they want more fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, and 56 percent oppose a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, up a shocking 18 points since 2018.
This new hostility comes from how Republicans have framed the crisis. They talk about it as a security threat, and as a threat to working Americans.
But as a working-class Latino man, I can’t really see the case for either issue. I can identify with anyone wishing to come to America to pursue the American Dream and to escape poverty and violence. I work hard to provide for my family, but it would not bother me at all to allow these immigrants to come into the United States and try to have a better life.
Immigration is the cornerstone of this country and to have lawmakers take a stand against it is hypocritical; Republican lawmakers are penalizing these people because they are poor and brown.
How could I not feel that way? I have faced racism and discrimination many times in my life, and I recognize that in how these politicians talk about immigrants. The way they stigmatize their desperate attempt to make a better life for themselves reminds me of being followed in a department store because the clerk thought I was going to steal something, or of white people asking me if I speak English, or if I’m Mexican and crossed the border to get here. It never crossed their minds that I was born in this country. I’m a person of color, therefore, I must be illegal.
That’s what I hear when I see people trying to criminalize those who want to come here: our country’s long history of fearing what it does not understand.
ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP via Getty Images
As for the question of security, I understand that Americans may not want to have criminals come into this country. Of course I get it: I grew up in the South Bronx where crime ruled with an iron fist. I witnessed it all—drug deals, prostitution, assaults, robberies, shootouts, you name it. And yes, some of these crimes were committed by illegal immigrants.
But they did not commit these crimes because they were immigrants. They committed them because crime is the reality in an unequal, impoverished society. You get money where you can and take the opportunities when they come up.
More often, I have seen the other side of this coin: I have seen illegal immigrants work long, hard hours, six, seven days a week, for meager wages to provide for their family back home. Other than crossing the border illegally, they have not committed any crimes in the United States.
Should we judge the whole community by the few who commit crimes? That doesn’t feel very just, or like what the ideals this country was founded on would dictate.
Moreover, if you commit a felony in this country, you get deported. While I was a correction officer on Rikers Island, I often spoke with inmates who were in this country illegally. All are facing deportation when their case comes to an end, as there is basically no immigration relief for anyone who has a felony conviction.
Of course, not all Latinos agree with me. I have friends, close friends, whose opinions I disagree with on immigration. One is a conservative Republican and the other is an Independent. They are done with the United States being so nice and welcoming to all of these immigrants. One friend was born in New York City, while the other was born in the Dominican Republic. Both are highly educated and one of them even served in the U.S. Navy.
My Navy friend has told me time and time again that “Enough is enough!!” He doesn’t want to offer any type of help, whether it is public assistance or citizenship. His opinion is that “these people need to fend for themselves. No help from us. It’s going to hurt our economy.”
I have explained to him the benefits of having immigrants come into this country: They work the jobs no one wants to do. He was not moved: “My parents came here legally and so can they.”
It’s difficult to debate someone who doesn’t want to accept the reality that a lot of these individuals need help and are escaping extreme troubles in their home countries, be they economic woes or violence.
Engraved on the Statue of Liberty, which has been welcoming immigrants to this great nation for over 130 years, are Emma Lazarus’s words: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” These words did not make a distinction as to what part of the world the huddled masses were coming from, only that they were yearning to be free.
I hope our politicians remember this important message.
Ralph Ortiz has worked for both FDNY as an Emergency Medical Technician and as a Correction Officer for the New York City Department of Corrections. He now works as a case manager for the Department of Children and Families in NJ where he also lives.
The views in this article are the writer’s own.
