Marissa Holland

July 5, 2014

Creating Our Own Minorities

            In the small border town of Murrieta, California, immigration laws have come to a head for this town’s population. Protesters succeeded in stopping the drop-off of women and children immigrants who were being bused from overwhelmed and overcrowded processing stations along the US-Mexico border. With anti-immigration signs and chants, the bus was forced to continue on the San Diego in order to safely unload the immigrants. While it is hard to state that all these women and children are of Mexican nationality, the same question we have faced in our American Immigration Literature class has arisen. Both towns, Murrieta and San Diego, were once Mexico. It brings to mind the idea that “I did not cross the border, the border crossed me.” Another humanitarian issue has come to light from this event. How are we to handle the influx of unaccompanied children that can walk across our borders? “An estimated 52,193 unaccompanied children younger than 18 years old have been caught illegally crossing the Southwest U.S.-Mexico border since October, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection” (Cano). This did not seem to be an issue during the Old World immigration as the journey to get to America was much greater. Are we to now send these children back to their home countries, which are in major political turmoil? The solution to such questions has yet to be answered.

            On July 1,2014, the bus carrying women and children from overcrowded processing stations in Texas was first met with the protesters. The town feels as if has become overrun with “illegals” and such transportations are only creating “new illegals.” "We can't start taking care of others if we can't take care of our own," said protester Nancy Greyson, 60, of Murrieta” (Cano). However, pro-immigration protesters were present as well with chants like, "We are your baby-sitters, we clean your hotels, we baby-sit your kids," (Cano). Such phrases could be reworded to “We are your minorities!” Such immigrant groups will be faced with the hardships of the minorities as their countries are not far away and there is a large population of their ethnicities for them to create their “neighborhoods.” Not to mention that such hostility towards their immigration makes them resist assimilation.  

            Tensions remained high in the California town even after the departure of the buses. Rumors swirled that more buses carrying more immigrants would arrive and this time the protesters from both sides were ready. On July 4, 2014, more clashes between the two sides erupted although no buses did arrive. “One banner read: "Proud LEGAL American. It doesn't work any other way." Another countered: "Against illegal immigration? Great! Go back to Europe!"(Hamilton) This hits to the heart of the issue. Aside from American Indians, every citizen of this country can trace their lineage to some sort of immigration. We are a nation of immigrants. It seems to be that some of the descendants of Old World immigrants cannot always grasp the issues of New World immigrants. Geography seems to play a large part in such confusion. It is easier to mentally fathom why one would need to immigrate from across an ocean, but when Mexico is sometimes less than 50 miles away, such immigration can be misunderstood. One pro-immigration protester Raquel Alvarado stated, "We're celebrating the 4th of July and what a melting pot America is,’ said Raquel Alvarado, a high school history teacher and Murrieta resident who chalked up the fear of migrants in the city of roughly 106,000 to discrimination. ‘They don't want to have their kids share the same classroom,’ she said,” (Hamilton). She brings up the education issue of immigration. If the dominant culture does not want to share their classrooms with the immigrants or minorities, then how do we teach our own county’s history effectively? “Should we teach multiculturalism or assimilation? What balance between ‘identity’, ‘tradition’, and ‘roots’ on one hand, and ‘conformity’, ‘modernization’, and ‘mobility’ on the other?” (Objective 6).

            President Obama seemed to have an answer to such questions when he hosted new citizens of the US at the White House on July 4, 2014. He stated, “"The basic idea of welcoming immigrants to our shores is central to our way of life, it is in our DNA,’ Obama said after the 25 service members representing 15 countries raised their right hands and pledged allegiance to the United States. ‘From all these different strands, we make something new here in America. And that's why, if we want to keep attracting the best and brightest from beyond our borders, we're going to have to fix our immigration system, which is broken,’ he said. ‘Pass common-sense immigration reform,” (Superville). Political acts such as the Dream Act also seems to provide answers to such questions.

            It seems the immigrant/minority status has become even more confusing for the nation to comprehend as well as for the immigrants to comprehend. They are greeted with opposition before they even have the ability to arrive in the country. How do we as a country expect these people to feel a need to assimilate? We are creating and perpetuating our own minorities.

Works Cited

Cano, Ricardo. “Protesters Block Migrant Buses in California.” USA Today July 2, 2014. Web. July 5, 2014. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/07/01/migrants-buses-california-protests/11938555/

Hamilton, Matt. “Dueling Immigration Rallies Held in California.” Yahoo News July 4, 2014. Web. July 5, 2014. http://news.yahoo.com/dueling-immigration-rallies-held-california-022845783.html

Superville, Darlene. “Obama: The US has Always Been a Nation of Immigration.” Yahoo News.July 4, 2014. Web. July 5, 2014. http://news.yahoo.com/obama-us-always-nation-immigrants-160349726--politics.html

White, Craig. American Immigration Literature Syllabus