Coffin of Marcelo Lucero in Gualaceo, Equador
Click here to read the story
The other day I heard an NPR story about the money our government is spending to construct a border fence between Mexico and Arizona. Tell me, why are we spending all this money to keep illegal immigrants out instead of spending money to provide programs and education for the ones who are here?
I don't understand the idea of an "exclusive" America where some people belong and others don't. Apparently it is always the white people who belong. Well, in about 20 years whites will no longer have a majority, so will we still be the people trying to keep out people of color?
I thought America was supposed to be the land of the free where anyone could come to find life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I'm not sure exactly what America I'm thinking of, because the America in this article is one where people who were here "first" (as in, a couple hundred years earlier than current immigrants - but a few thousand years later than the first immigrants) feel justified in committing heinous crimes against those who are new to the country, whose skin is a different color, and who speak a different language.
The Hispanic immigrants who are here have no one to turn to for support but their own family members, and sometimes a church community. They see the police as the enemy since they enforce the immigration laws. The government provides no support to illegal immigrants (that I know of). How can you survive in such a hostile environment? Obviously, with hate crimes such as the killing in this article, survival is indeed a problem.
Times are changing, though, and since our economy has began shifting the immigration has gone down 42% Eventually America is going to realize that the cultural and linguistic diversity brought by these immigrants is a rich contribution to our nation's identity - but by then will it be too late????
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