Immigration : Pro: ‘I Work Hard’ : Con: ‘Too Many Are Here’

MANUEL HERNANDEZ

Day laborer from El Salvador

I came here two years ago because of the war and to work. I wanted to work and send some money back to my family, but I haven’t been able to do that because I don’t even make enough to eat. There are eight of us living in one apartment and there is no work. But there’s no work in El Salvador, either, so I’m planning to stay here a little longer.

I work hard. I’m not a bandit or a drug addict. I just want to live by the sweat of my brow.

There are good and bad everywhere. The majority of us immigrants are just trying to work and support our families. But the few bad ones spoil it for everybody. One of the reasons the gringos hate us is because they think we are taking their jobs. But it’s not true.

GIL WONG

Asian Americans for Border Control, Sylmar

I am an ethnic Chinese and my family came in 1930. But I was born here, the first generation of my family born here. I used to live in the South-Central area. I was there for 43 years, but it just got so overwhelming with all the immigrants moving in. There was crime, noise, all that. People were putting trailers, shacks in the back yard.

It became a flood that changed the shape, condition and environment of my neighborhood. A lot of people were scared. These were Americans citizens scared to be in their own neighborhoods because we were outnumbered.

The illegals that come in are not professionals. They are unskilled or semi-skilled, like a lot of Mexican-Americans or blacks. They wind up competing for the same jobs. The basic issue is that illegal is illegal.

What it comes down to is that if these people have no respect for the federal immigration laws, they will continue to break laws when they are here. The argument that it is a racist issue has no validity. It is basically a socio-economic issue. It’s a legal issue about sovereignty. It’s an environmental issue.

BANG CONG NGUYEN

Printer from Vietnam

I was in jail for a certain time in Vietnam and I organized an underground group against the government, so I had to escape. I came here looking for freedom. I came here alone, with no money, no job and no place to go. It was a strange country and I didn’t know the language so I carried a book with me that I used when I had to talk to people.

My whole family is still in Vietnam--my parents, my three brothers and three sisters. At first, I missed them a lot. I thought I had lost my family forever. Even sending a letter to Vietnam was very tough and I felt very guilty. In Vietnam, you are expected to pay back your parents for all they did for you. But then I couldn’t help my parents; I couldn’t pay them back.

ANNETTE KIUREGHIAN

Teacher, ethnic Armenian from Iran

I came here as a student and I never imagined my life would turn out this way. That was 1979, and things were getting pretty hectic in Iran then. Since my brother was here, we decided to come to Los Angeles. My mother only brought one suitcase because she thought she’d be here for three months before things got back to normal. But we’ve never been back.

Surprisingly, a lot of our friends from the older generation, my parents’ generation, are going back. The older generation is more concerned about their businesses and don’t really mind the lack of night life or the other knick-knacks.

ANA MARIA GOMEZ

Housekeeper from El Salvador

The war, that was the reason I came here (in 1980). At first I didn’t know how long I would stay. I was so insecure. The first year is hard. You miss your family a lot, especially if you are alone like I was.

I don’t feel anymore that El Salvador is my country. I was raised there, but I don’t feel like I belong there anymore. I went back five years ago, but I didn’t see the El Salvador that I remembered. Everything was destroyed. My street looked so narrow and I remember thinking, “This is my house?” I was like a stranger.

GLENN SPENCER

Voice of Citizens Together, Sherman Oaks

We are exporting jobs and importing poverty and if it isn’t halted, we are going to continue this downward spiral. If you look at the governor’s projection for the population of Los Angeles County, by the year 2040 there will be 11.5 million Hispanics and a little more than 2 million white people. And the only thing wrong with those projections is that it will happen faster than that.

What we are opposed to is illegal immigration. The term anti-immigrant seems to imply that we are against those who have entered this country legally. Nothing could be further than the truth.

The total taxes--federal, county and state--that illegal immigrants pay doesn’t even add up to their cost to the school system. If we don’t do something about this problem, you’re going to continue to see middle-class flight.

EZOLA FOSTER

Black Americans for Family Values, Venice

We are very much concerned with the economic impact of immigration. For example, the high unemployment among black youth has a lot to do with illegal immigration.

During the 1960s, at a time when our black men worked at the “menial” job of waiter, they were making enough money to take care of their families and to educate their children. But today, those jobs are being snatched up by illegals. Those entry-level jobs were once a way out of the ghetto.

STEVEN KIZITO

Cable TV installer from Uganda

Life is so confined, so private here. I don’t even know my next-door neighbor. Nobody gives a damn if you die today or tomorrow. The thing that makes me want to go back home sometimes is that you work so hard here. Here you have to buy everything. People don’t grow their own food. But I came from a country that had many problems and it’s so peaceful here. Everyone is always talking about South-Central Los Angeles, but those people should see Kampala. South-Central is nothing compared to Uganda.

I’ll have to go back home eventually because I have property there.

FATHER RICHARD ESTRADA

Catholic priest, director of Jovenes center for homeless youth, Los Angeles

People from different parts of the world have really built this city. They--the Mexicans, the Filipinos, the Japanese--are and were the agricultural workers. The Chinese built the railroad. It was the Mexicans and the Central Americans, the cheap labor, who built those high-rises downtown. But now that those are done, now that they no longer need the cheap labor--and I am not talking about just Latinos, I am talking about our Asian brothers and sisters and people from all over the world--now that they are no longer needed, (sectors of the public) are blaming them for all of society’s ills. But that’s after they’ve been used. After they’ve been exploited, they become the scapegoats.

NANCY THOMSON

Citizens for Responsible Immigration, Orange

I don’t want my state to become like a Third World country where people are living outside the law. We have to ensure our sovereignty as a nation so we need to control immigration and make sure our laws are enforced. Otherwise, we’re going to wind up with a two-tiered legal system. We’ll have a two-tiered educational system. We’ll have a two-tiered language.

Multiculturalism does not work. Show me one place in the world where it has worked. There is a general thread that runs through the culture and English is the dominant language. That’s what got us to be the dominant nation. No one is saying you can’t speak other languages. But we have to have a common language.

RICH PADILLA

Construction worker, Castaic

My grandfather is originally from Zacatecas and he immigrated here legally. We are proud of our heritage. But there are too many immigrants here already. Sixty percent of them are illegals and a lot of them are criminals.

They’re lowering the pay scale. I work in construction and in some cases they’re taking work from me. I think my rates are pretty competitive, but say there’s some guy who needs some work done and he’s short on money. He can get a truck, go down to a street corner and pick up four or five day laborers. There’s no way I can compete with that.