Post

One from many

Like many of you, I have been chewing on the “immigration issue” for the past several months as the frenzy has unfolded here in the Midwest.

“Illegal immigrants” and poor working conditions for migrant workers had always been California’s problem, right? According to Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, agriculture is an important part of any immigration discussion, and he’s not referring to California’s San Joaquin Valley any more than he is referring to the meat packing industry right here in the heartland of America.

Brownback told a Brownfield reporter “We see the need for about half a million farm workers, the vast majority of that coming internationally.” The Republican Senator believes farmers are suffering because they can’t find enough legal immigrant workers. “They can hardly be in a worse place, because right now they are employing a number of undocumented individuals,” he added. “Look at the agriculture system, you may have half, perhaps more of your agriculture workers (that) are undocumented.”

World Perspectives, an agricultural consulting firm, estimates 40 percent of all immigrants in the United States work in agriculture, and anywhere from 25 to 75 percent of farm laborers in the United States are “fraudulently documented.”

The President of the American Farm Bureau Federation says new immigration laws should not jeopardize a farmer’s ability to be competitive in the world market. Bob Stallman of Texas said legislation to reform federal immigration policies must include a balanced, sensible approach to the needs of U.S. agriculture.

Stallman warned of the chance that net farm income for all other sectors of agriculture declining by as much as $5 billion without the proper immigration policies in place.

One area that may prove nearly impossible to document is the dairy industry where Hispanic labor has become a major share of those who milk cows on larger dairies. Many times, these workers are members of the same family and do not report to anyone outside their dairy so there is no way to know who didn’t show up for work and who may have covered for them.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. food services industry employs 1.6 million foreign-born workers. The Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York tells Reuters, 70 percent of the New York food workforce of 165,000 is foreign-born, and up to 40 percent of are undocumented. Workers of Chinese background are the largest group, with many Latin Americans, Arabs, Africans and Afro-Caribbeans, said the center’s director Saru Jayaraman.

In my personal opinion and the opinion of almost everyone I speak with, the current immigration system is not working. I understand that if the information gleaned from trustworthy sources I’ve quoted above is correct, agriculture needs immigrant labor.

However, as an American citizen, I have the freedom to express my opinion on the matter, and quite frankly, I take issue with a few things being said and done as of late:

The people being referred to as “undocumented immigrants” are not immigrants at all. They are illegal aliens. An immigrant is someone who is here legally.

I find it extremely offensive that anyone would record my National Anthem in a language other than English. I find it just as offensive that they would recite our Pledge of Allegiance in another language.

If you want to live and work in my country, you can learn to speak my language. Look around the world and back in history and tell me how many countries have survived the tension of more than one competing language and culture. I’m not suggesting that being bilingual is a bad thing. I think it’s wonderful to be fluent in languages spoken in other countries, as our need to communicate globally is more important than ever before in our nation’s history. Our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, and other important documents in the history of the United States of America were written in English.

When our ancestors arrived in this country so many years ago, they may have maintained some of the traditions of their “homeland” but they celebrated being American and all that came with it, including the language. Former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm suggests that if all immigrants keep their own language and culture, we will “replace the melting pot metaphor with a salad bowl metaphor.” Lamm says the various subgroups living in America will have their differences enforced instead of doing what Americans have done since 1776 – which is to have our similarities emphasized.

Dual citizenship is ridiculous. It promotes divided loyalties.

“E Pluribus Unum,” the motto for the first Great Seal of the United States by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson in 1776, is a Latin phrase meaning “One from many.” Our forefathers were determined to create a single unified nation of people from many different beliefs and backgrounds. Yes, we should honor history and recognize the cultural heritage of our citizens, but more than anything, we should honor that which makes us one.

The bottom line, however (and isn’t there always a bottom line?) is that in the end, the real test will be to see if either side of the issue will have enough influence to prompt Congress to take any action.