Do we need a wall to stop Mexicans?
You can?t throw a rock in Warren County without hitting a Mexican ? or a Mexican restaurant. And I?m not saying that as an anti-Mexican statement because I love chips and salsa.
What I am saying is, like it or not, this country?s Mexican population has exploded. It?s a simple fact. If you think Tennessee is overflowing with Mexicans, think again. The U.S. Census Bureau lists this state as 36th in the nation when it comes to the Hispanic population.
And those figures just reflect the legal Mexicans in this country. It?s the absurd number of illegal immigrants that has U.S. lawmakers pondering ways to keep them out or remove them once they get here.
Ideas have ranged from building a wall along the 700-mile U.S.-Mexico border to deported all Hispanics convicted of DUI (which would diminish the population pretty significantly).
When it comes to Hispanics in this country, there are two trains of thought and they are usually extreme. It?s a topic where very few people claim to have no opinion.
In one corner are the folks who don?t really care for Mexicans. I can hear them talking at the lunch counter now.
?They?re coming over here and taking our jobs and they don?t even bother to learn our language. I say they should have to learn English instead of us learning Spanish. It?s our country! Then they get out here on the weekends, get drunk and wreck. And you can?t catch them because they all run away because they don?t have a license in the first place.?
The other side doesn?t have such a loud rant, but talk to anyone in the construction or nursery business and they will tell you the value of Mexican labor. Mexicans are willing to work harder than Americans, they say, and Mexicans are thrilled to earn $6 or $7 an hour.
The U.S. economy couldn?t thrive the way it does without the cheap labor provided by thousands of Mexicans, many of which are skilled carpenters and brick masons. Mexicans take pride in their work, which is a concept a growing number of Americans are struggling to grasp.
If we deported all the illegal Mexicans, the U.S. economy would collapse because Americans think they?re ?too good? to perform such tasks, and businesses couldn?t meet the payroll of paying higher salaries for American help.
My line of thinking lies somewhere in between. We must come to grips with the fact Mexicans are now part of American culture and they are here to stay. But we also must take action to stop the relentless flow of illegal immigrants who are coming into our country each and every day.
I?m willing to tolerate, I say tolerate, the number of illegal Mexicans who are here now. But enough is enough. If it takes building a 700-mile wall along the border to get the problem under control, I say take action. If you aren?t born in this country, there are proper channels to go through in order to live here and we can?t continue to allow those rules to be trampled.
What?s important to remember is immigrants are usually only satisfied with low-class jobs for a generation. The Mexicans who are working in nursery fields and struggling to speak English have children in our public school system. Those children will get an education, perhaps go off to college, and then they will likely rather work behind a desk than in a field.
I don?t think establishing new laws is as much of an issue as enforcing current laws on the books. I think this country should continue to open its arms to LEGAL immigrants who are willing to learn our language and abide by our laws.
James Clark is editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].