Detention for Illegal Aliens

Why not impose penalties on illegal immigrants as deterrent to cross the border illegally? ask Barry R. Chiswick and Carmel U. Chiswick in their article (Editorial Pages, Oct. 9). It is obvious how naive these two people are regarding the people who come across the border.

How many detention facilities, and how big, would it take to temporarily detain 1 million undocumented workers a year?

This “solution” is not going “to stop the revolving door.” As an illegal worker myself, I can speak from personal experience. I have been detained and deported--”voluntary deportation”--a couple of times: once with a group of six people I was detained two weeks before being deported. The detention was not a deterrent for four of us to turn back and try again.

Although certainly a setback, most of us are determined to keep on trying simply because our families depend on us. Once I met a 65-year-old and his two sons, undaunted after three consecutive failures to cross the border, still trying even when for three nights none had slept but a few hours. Temporary detention would just have given them time to recuperate to keep on trying.

The Chiswicks claim Americans view illegal aliens as backward, innocent peasants and therefore tolerate us on these grounds. It is true we are “mature, decision-making individuals” and come north aware of the weight of the failure or success of our endeavor. Yet most of us only know two things about America: the opportunity for employment and better pay, and the hardship in crossing the border. When I first walked across the desert through Sonoita I didn’t speak this language nor understood it. I knew nothing about the American way of life.

I respect and admire the American people for their values and spirit of freedom. Why couldn’t they respect these “mature, decision-making” people when all we want is a chance to escape our poverty, backwardness, and the oppression that come with it?

I am not proposing that you “open your borders” or to even minimize the relentlessness with which illegal immigrants are persecuted. Such decisions are for politicians. All I am asking for is to simply let those with the courage and perseverance try their luck. Aren’t these but two of the virtues Americans highly regard? After all, to quote a world-famous musician, “a working-class hero is something to be.” Leaving the hypocrisy of politics aside, most of us are simply that: working-class people with a dream.

SAMUEL MUNOZ

Bellflower