The economic reasons to justify a comprehensive immigration reform are clear:
• Immigrants are a powerful force for the American dream. They are younger and to achieve their goals, work harder than most.
• Today Latinos represent a formidable market with an annual purchasing power of $ 1.2 trillion.
• The recent study by the Congressional Budget Office confirms that, if carried out, the reform will reduce the country’s fiscal deficit in more than $ 1 trillion in a decade.
In other words, open up the doors of this country to the Americans by conviction and determination is a matter of self-benefit.
The political reasons are also very clear:
• On track to becoming (by mid-century) one third of the national demographics, the Latinos are an electoral force impossible to ignore in order to achieve political power, in many local arenas as well as national level.
• Its 9 million votes Latinos were decisive in Obama’s reelection. From now on, nobody will be able to get the White House without their support.
• With the belief that Hispanics have deep conservative roots and values, the thinking wing of the Republican Party seems willing to stop their extremist voices, whom from xenophobia and racial hatred like to take easy shots of using immigrants as punching bags
Moral reasons are less obvious:
• They relate to the welfare of the 4.5 million U.S. citizens with undocumented parents, whom due the current brutal deportation policies would be condemn to virtual orphanhood, as already occurs in hundreds of thousands of cases each year.
• Cases like the several 7-Eleven stores recently charged with several cases of extreme exploitation of undocumented workers.
• According to court documents filed against several 7-Eleven franchise stores –just a fraction of the 49,000 stores the company this runs–, in the states of New York and Virginia, severely abused an undetermined number of undocumented workers, mostly from Pakistan and the Philippines, whom lived and work in conditions only comparable with slavery, a scheme that the country decided to abolished a century and a half ago.
Beyond the specific criminal liability –in this case a fraud of almost $ 200 million, it is obvious the passive accomplice role of the broken immigration system that today is the rule of the land on the matter. It is the same extreme exploitation order some people in Congress are, de facto, trying to preserve.
In any case, whether economic benefit, political pragmatism, or moral conviction to honor the values that are in the very foundation of this nation core, the immigration reform must be finally addressed.
Meanwhile, immigrants, and for purposes of this publication, Latino immigrants – will continue with the process of integration to their new home. In these times, it is a matter of vacation, swimming pools, beaches, barbeques and fireworks.
While keep working- according with American history first generation immigrants almost never stop working- the process to integrate also means learning to enjoy life. Particularly this year when more Latino students will enter University than withes, and Latinos will become the largest minority in California, summer is an excellent opportunity to advance the agenda towards integration.
In this, our fourth edition of Tambien Somos AMERICANOS, we insist on our obligation to improve our English skills, take better care of our health, and also bring to you helpful advices in various areas of your daily life.
We hope you’ll keep reading us, getting more involved in your community, and prepare for what is coming. Hopefully, progress toward the long-term goal of complete integration within a legal, more orderly and efficient route.
