Latino Coalition: They Don't Speak for Us

Vida en el Valle, News Report, Stan Oklobdzija, Posted: May 11, 2006

A new coalition of U.S. Latinos headed to Washington D.C. last Monday to say the massive protests seen around the country "don't speak for us."

The group, known as 'You Don't Speak for Me,' was started by U.S. Latinos who were "offended by the demands being made by people who have broken our nation's laws," according to a statement released by the group. The group arrived in the nation's capitol May 1 with the hopes of meeting with members of Congress and discussing immigration reform.

According to the group's statement, the coalition supports the "strengthening and enforcement of U.S. immigration laws." This includes added manpower and barriers along the border with Mexico, denial of non-emergency benefits and services to undocumented immigrants and "vigorous enforcement" of businesses that hire undocumented workers, the statement said.

According to Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the group was formed when Latinos called his group to ask how they could get involved.

"We were getting so many calls," Mehlman said. "They'd say, 'I'm Latino and I disagree with what's going on'."

Al Rodríguez is the coalition's founder. A resident of Scottsdale, Ariz., Rodríguez met Mehlman at a conference on immigration sponsored by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office early this year.

Rodríguez said that Latinos suffer the burdens of illegal immigration just as other American citizens do.

"Latinos (who are) here legally are paying taxes for all kinds of excess Medicare," Rodríguez says. "It's costing them money and their taxes are going higher."

Additionally, Latinos who are citizens or legal residents sometimes find themselves the targets of antagonism directed towards undocumented immigrants.

"People look at us in a way like, 'Hey, you're one of those guys, one of these illegals'."

Olga Robles is a second-generation American of Mexican descent. She lives in Douglas, Arizona, which sits directly on the U.S.-Mexico border across from Agua Prieta, Sonora.

Robles takes exception when she hears Latinos on television speaking as if all Latinos favor granting amnesty to the undocumented, she says.

"Those people that are supporting the illegals, they don't speak for me," she said. "I speak for myself."

Robles cites a host of reasons why she is against undocumented immigration.

"Since I live here on the border, I've seen how illegals storm our property," she says. "They are overcrowding our schools and getting services from our hospitals they don't pay for."

Robles puts most of the fault on the Mexican government for causing the flow of migrants into the United States. Instead of building infrastructure and creating jobs, Robles says the Mexican government "wants someone else to take care of their people."

Robles remembers watching a conversation between Mexican Pres. Vicente Fox and a migrant on a Mexican news program in December. On a trip to a border shantytown, Fox met with a man who'd just been caught trying to cross the border and was sent back. Fox asked the man if he'd try again, Robles recalls, to which the man said he'd try as many times as he had to.

"Fox told this guy he was hero," says Robles. "Isn't that a shame? Instead of saying 'You're a (Mexican) citizen. Stay and make this country better.'"

Robles is sympathetic to the plight of those crossing the border, but says the United States just can't accommodate all of them.

"America just can't take care of all the people in Mexico," she says. "The other side bothers me, but what can we do? If we go down there with 1,000 Americans to say 'Take care of your people,' they'd shoot us down."

America has no choice but to close its borders and deport all the undocumented immigrants, she says. But at the same time, Robles says, Mexico has to fix the poverty and hopelessness that sends people north in the first place.

If the two governments don’t come up with a new policy, she says, nothing will change.

"My granddad came from Mexico more than 100 years ago for the same problems and the same reasons," she says.


Related Stories

Can Opponents 'Swiftboat' the Immigrant Rights Movement?

Protesters: Put Down Your Signs (for Now) and Pick Up the Phone

This Movement Is Big, And It's Ours

Page 1 of 1

Printable Version Return to Normal Version Send Page to Friend Subscribe to NAM Newsletters