As I was browsing through Netflix titles this weekend an interesting movie title caught my attention: A Day Without a Mexican. I decided to order it and see exactly what Hollywood thinks a day without a Mexican would be like. In the movie, intended to be a lighthearted comedy, California’s Mexican population suddenly disappears one day and leaves the entire state in disarray.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the events that followed after the Mexicans’ disappearance: restaurant owners are thrown into a panic without dish-washers, lawns go unmowed and crops start to rot in the field without Hispanics to harvest them.
Mexicans are often portrayed as the workforce in so many movies, including this year’s Fun with Dick and Jane, in which Dick loses his job as a high-powered executive and is comically forced to stand on the corner with a large crowd of Mexicans trying to jump on a work truck. This of course was his last resort, further portraying the stereotype that Mexicans do all the work that Americans do not want to do.
While these movies are overly generalized and exaggerated, they do have some truth to them. The Migration Information Resource reports that out of employed Mexican immigrants, well over 70 percent of them work in production, transportation, material moving, construction and food service. Although Mexicans were recorded to only make up 4 percent of the entire workforce, one out of every three of the one million workers employed in farming, fishing and forestry were Mexican.
With such heavy labor contributions, I started to wonder what exactly a day without the entire Mexican population would be like and if I would be affected by this. With Mexicans dominating many of the physical-labor jobs that are unwanted by many Americans, I think there would hardly be anyone who would not be affected by the loss of the Mexican population.
The Pew Center estimates that there were 11.1 million illegal immigrants in America last year. Most of them are Hispanic, and most of them come here to work. Immigration reforms are up on the table for Congress now, and the issue is coming to a boil with school walk-outs and protest rallies. The main issues up for discussion are temporary work passes, making currently residing immigrants legal and securing the border.
America was a country built completely on immigration, and we are often called a melting pot. It is essential for America to have a comprehensive immigration system that works. In President Bush’s recent radio address he said that, “At its core, immigration is the sign of a confident and successful nation. It says something about our country that people around the world are willing to leave their homes, leave their families and risk everything to come to America. Their talent, hard work and love of freedom have helped make America a vibrant, strong nation. And by reforming our immigration laws to meet the realities of the 21st century, we will ensure that America remains a beacon of liberty for generations to come.”
This is such an important issue, because it does not only affect Republicans, Democrats or people of a certain race — it affects everyone in America. Many Americans are unsure about the immigration reforms, because they feel like illegal Mexican immigrants are coming here and working for low wages, which subsequently takes jobs from Americans. However, a temporary-worker program would create a legal way to match willing foreign workers with willing American employers to fill jobs that no American is available to do. By creating this legal channel, we would reduce the number of people who are trying to sneak across the border.
The other proposal of border security is also a vital one. In the past eight years, more than 6 million immigrants trying to enter the country illegally have been caught and turned back. Many of these have had prior criminal records. Due to the lack of beds that are available in the current immigration retention centers, most of the time they are part of the ‘catch and release’ method in which the attempted illegal immigrants are returned back to Mexico within 24 hours. This is a problem, because as soon as they are released they often make plans to try to get across the border some other way and do not show up for their scheduled court date.
Many of the Mexican immigrant families that are here now are split between the parents’ illegal status and their children’s legal status. This is obviously a problem, because it tears families apart and severely limits the opportunities available to the children.
With such obvious problems with current immigration policy, I think it is high time for a reform. A policy that tears families apart, does not provide a legal channel for current immigrants and that leaves immigrants prey to criminals is not one that America should be proud of. Everyone who lives in America and benefits from or gains a service through the labor of Mexican immigrants should appreciate all the positives that they bring to our society and stop always focusing on the negatives. America was built on immigration and diversity, and I think we should continue in the practices that made us such a strong nation and rally for fair immigration laws.