They Just Want to Be U.S. Citizens

It was an immigrant-basher’s nightmare: More than 250 holders of green cards turned out on a stormy morning last week in Lincoln Heights to fill out applications for U.S. citizenship. As I saw the prospective citizens line up to fill out the paperwork, I could imagine the basher’s reaction:

“What do you mean applying for citizenship? These people are a drain on our social services! They come to our country to have babies! They commit crimes! They take jobs from Americans! “They could (gulp) become (gasp) citizens!”

Alfredo and Maria Munoz aren’t the kind of folks who would strike fear in anyone’s heart. They are law-abiding people from Mexico who dream of seeing their three children go to college. Although they live in a nice, four-bedroom home in a gated community in Pico Rivera, they fret about the economy and whether they can hang on to the American dream.

The couple, two of the 250 legal immigrants who turned out to begin the citizenship process that recent morning, are among an estimated 10 million disenfranchised legal residents who can’t vote in this country.

That’s a lot of potential nightmares for the bashers.

Sitting around the kitchen table sipping coffee and eating apple pie a la mode, Alfredo and Maria couldn’t understand why people would believe the worst about immigrants just because they weren’t born here.

“There are good people and there are bad people, whatever ethnic group they are,” Alfredo said. “Immigrants do use the hospital system because they have nowhere else to go. A lot of white people come from other states, with no jobs, and nobody says anything about them. You know and I know that immigrants work in a lot of low-paying jobs that others won’t take.”

Alfredo and Maria have never been on welfare, nor have they been arrested or had a child born at a public health facility.

“People are going around saying things that just come into their heads,” Alfredo said. “If you’re not part of the solution, then you must be part of the problem.”

His wife nodded her head, adding that immigrant-bashing “is very disappointing.”

Like a lot of other immigrants who come to this country, the couple has a stake in its future. Take, for example, the proposed free trade agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Alfredo, who was born 43 years ago in Guadalajara, is happy to know that his homeland will get some benefits from the agreement. A card-carrying union machinist, he is fearful, however, that many jobs in this country will be lost because of the cheap labor south of the border.

“California’s going to lose a lot of jobs,” Alfredo contended. “I was born in Mexico but I live here now. And I’m affected by the (possible) loss of jobs.”

It’s an attitude that is widely held among people who were born here.

There’s a trace of bitterness as Alfredo talks because he thinks racism is at the root of the immigrant-bashing. It’s easier to tell strangers his name is just plain Al. On occasion, he avoids speaking Spanish.

“I’ve tried not to let it bother me,” Alfredo allowed, “but some people do try to keep you in a corner.”

It was the little things that prompted them to show up in Lincoln Heights for the citizenship workshop. Alfredo regretted he couldn’t vote for Bill Clinton. His wife, who is also 43, would have canceled his vote because she favored George Bush. Alfredo’s inability to vote had an ironic twist--he served for six years on the homeowners board that governs the gated community where the couple lives.

With the aid of a volunteer from the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), the Munozes filled out the citizenship application that told of their lives. Out came the story of how they legally came to the U.S.; of Alfredo’s high school education near Stockton and of Maria’s at Garfield High in East L.A.; of three children who are U.S. citizens, and of the two homes the couple now own.

Harry Pachon, NALEO’S executive director, says Latinos such as Alfredo and Maria are the reasons for the citizenship campaign his group is undertaking this year. They can join the growing numbers of Latino voters in key states such as California, Texas, New York, Florida and New Jersey.

“By ignoring the 10 million legal immigrants,” Pachon says, “we run the risk of an increased feeling of powerlessness in our nation’s inner cities, which can only result in negative situations like the Los Angeles riots.”

I can imagine what the bashers will say when Alfredo and Maria Munoz become U.S. citizens.