Latino’s…Like all the other immigrants that have come here…WILL change this place AND their children become Us…

This piece is something I have pointed out here at the Dog consistently in the past….

It reminds us the just as the African’s (who where SHIPPED here in chains), Irish, Italians, Germans, Poles and other came here…

Set up in their own neighborhoods….

Spoke their own languages….

Ate their own foods…

Brought their own cultures….

Latinos’s will are doing the same…

But the 2nd, and 3rd generations of these people’s will become just American as Apple Pie and Baseball….

I would ask…

Why are we afraid of this?

I would remind everyone as the author does…

This same question and the anti-immigration feelings out there have been around for centuries in these United States of America…

This linked piece below focuses on Pennsylvania…

It sheds a spotlight on the growth in that state…

Indeed…

The regeneration that sprung up in the old rust belt of the NorthEast…..

We must embrace this…

For it IS what this country is…

And…

Has ALWAYS been…..

A place that takes the ‘tired and poor’…

A learns to growth and prosper with those that come here to provide this place with new blood…..

“Three generations,” declares James Smith, an immigration researcher at the RAND Corporation. “By the time you get to the third generation, you can’t distinguish between Americans and Hispanic immigrants. That’s how long it takes to look like an American.”

A bit of context proves useful here. In its 235-year history, the United States cycled through two distinct waves of immigration, and now stands in the midst of a third. The first, from 1840 to 1889, gave us things like Christmas trees and St. Patrick’s Day parades. The second wave, which my aunt belonged to, ran from roughly 1890 to the start of the First World War. During that time, a whopping 3.7 million Italians, most of them poor, Catholic, and otherwise undesirable, washed up in East Coast ports. Huddled masses of Austria-Hungarians, Russians, and Poles followed in comparable numbers.

Because the population of the U.S. was markedly smaller at that time, each second- and third-wave immigrant had a proportionally larger impact on mainstream culture than each immigrant does today. At the height of the second wave, there were 8.8 incoming immigrants for every 1,000 Americans. Now the rate looks more like 4.6 per every 1,000.

The sudden influx of foreigners startled settled Americans, says Garrett Epps, a professor of constitutional law who has studied historical immigration. In the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries, Americans felt the same sense of suspicion toward Irish, German, and Italian immigrants that some feel toward Hispanics today. All three groups deviated from what Huntington identifies as the core “American creed,” the set of values that defined traditional American culture. Among them: Christian religious commitment, individualism, and the “duty to try to create a heaven on earth,” carried over by the pilgrims and their black-smocked ilk.

If those values sound foreign or antiquated to us now, we have first- and second-wave immigrants to thank. They drank beer, practiced other religions, and started their own schools and newspapers, often to the aggravation of their American-born neighbors. “Immigration was very much on people’s minds in the late 19th century,” Epps says. “All of the concerns about immigration that we have now were also present then.”

A century later, those concerns look unfounded. From generation to generation, early immigrants achieved higher standards of living, educational attainment, and English-language proficiency. They moved to the suburbs; their children went to college. But it’s not as if these people vanished, dissolving into a population that pre-existed them. After all, you can eat souvlaki, spaghetti, or sushi virtually anywhere in the country…..

More….

Ain’t it true?

EVERYONE  here

Came from someone

From 

Somewhere ELSE?

From Politicaldog101…..

Crime in the states bordering Mexico has actually dropped…..Why should Obama send more troops?

The Dog has pointed out to this action happening to Presidents over…and  over….

Calls for Immigration reform almost always end up having US Presidents sending troops and putting reform off…

It will be no different this time even though the FBI is reporting a drop in crime in the border states…..some of it bt double digits….

Response to immigration has become a political irrationality…..fraut with fear…….

The governor’s of those state get those crime summaries…..

They know the score…

But they persist in placing blame on the concept of immigration……

politically directed……

I wonder if this country has the ability to deal with the immigration problem…

Or it will just keep on being a issue too toxic to handle…..

President Barack Obama recently agreed to send 1,200 National Guard troops to the border to help curb the flow of illegal drugs, guns and money, as well as to help mitigate instances of spillover violence from Mexico.

And this week several senators, led by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), are expected to make a strong push to send thousands more troops to the border region during the debate of the defense authorization bill. It is expected to spark a furor of opposition from both the Senate and the White House.

But the impending debate comes amid newly released FBI statistics that show low levels and an overall decline in instances of violence and crime in major border region cities.

The numbers, released by the FBI before the Memorial Day recess, show that Phoenix, El Paso and San Diego all have some of the lowest rates of violent crime compared to other cities throughout the U.S.

Between 2008 and 2009 instances of violent crime in Phoenix dropped by more than 16 percent and the number of murders decreased by more than 17 percent. Violent crime in San Diego dropped by nearly 2 percent and murders fell by more than 25 percent. In El Paso, levels of violent crime remained the same, but the number of murders dropped by nearly 30 percent, according to the FBI’s latest statistics.

Nationwide, violent crime decreased by about 5 percent last year. Violent crimes within counties that run along the Mexican border have seen a 30 percent decrease over the past 20 years and remain some of the lowest rates in America.

But McCain and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer have argued that Arizona is plagued by drug runners and kidnappers who helped make Phoenix the “kidnap capital” of the U.S. in 2008……

More……..

A Good and True Illegal Immigrant Story……And the Dream Act…..

I found this story out there about a woman who found out that she was an illegal immigrant when she was 13, went on tp get herself legal and moved on to graduate school…go to college and graduate school and get a chance to let us know her story of how she became one of the 300 million american’s that we are proud of…..

This is something people should not be afraid of…..

Immigration has a personal face……

This piece includes a push for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, also known as The Dream Act…..This bill proposes to offer full citizenship to children of illegal immigrants who have been on America for a certain time and can demonstrate good character and eduction…..the bill would apply to people in the US military that meet the same criteria….

Countless demonstrations have taken place in a national effort to bring attention to theDevelopment, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, also known as The Dream Act. In solidarity with the Dream Act, and the countless students who would benefit from this legislation, I share with you my own journey from a small country in Central America to the vast urban jungle of Los Angeles.

From 1980 – 1992, my country of origin, El Salvador, was deeply entangled in a civil war. Financially supported by the U.S. government under President Carter and President Reagan, the Salvadoran government was able to wage war against its citizens in the final stages of the Cold War.

I lost my father because of this war. He died trying to protect the basic human rights of farmers, mothers and children.

In 1983, when I was just three years old, my mother, just in her early 20’s, made a decision that would change our destiny. She would go to the U.S., work and to find a way to send money back home so that I could join her. The irony of relocating to a

country that enabled the Salvadoran government to propel thousands of its citizens to leave doesn’t escape me.

Within a few years, working as a nanny despite having a bachelor’s degree, my mother had saved enough money and sent for me. I was five years old. She had remarried and I had a new family. Life was wonderful and the American dream was within reach. I was the oldest of five daughters, and went on to be the first in my family to graduate from an American high school. I received my undergraduate degree from Cal State Los Angeles and just last year, a Masters from the University of Southern California, where I was the student speaker at the Chicano/Latino graduation ceremony. I took out loans and worked countless jobs from selling TV’s at Circuit City to walking dogs to answering phones – my parents had taught me to value of hard work and setting goals.

A few weeks ago, my state senator, Gloria Romero, recognized me as “Woman of the Year” for my work as a broadcaster and for my community service.

As I read the headlines of students risking deportation in acts that are nothing short of true American patriotism in efforts to increase the dialogue on the need for comprehensive immigration reform, I cant help but wonder about my own journey.

You see, I was thirteen years old when I learned I was undocumented – that I was “illegal.” I had crossed the Mexico and U.S. border with a Mickey Mouse shirt in the backseat of a coyote. Me, the girl who played violin, loved the Dodgers, received straight A’s and always sat in front of the class. How could I be illegal?

Turns out that despite living in a country where people were being murdered, women raped and children going missing, the U.S. government refused us political asylum. We were faced with the option of 1) risking death through war or 2) being in the U.S. without proper paperwork.

The choice was a simple one of survival.

For most teenagers, turning 13 is a right of passage, high school looms ahead with dreams of prom, boys and football rallies. For me, I learned the truth of my status and began to see the world through a different lens. We didn’t leave El Salvador because we wanted to; we left because we had to.

The choices that followed that decision have been a trickle-down effect that occurred the moment President Reagan agreed to increase funding for the Salvadoran civil war.

More……..

The Immigration discussion is framed by age….Young American don’t understand their elders…..

[ “I just feel like it’s unfair what the government does to immigrants.” ANDREA BONVECCHIO, 17-year-old U.S.-born daughter of a naturalized citizen. ]

BECAUSE of the nations immigration……

Most young people these days have vastly different takes on the issue…

There are very few grade schools and High Schools that don’t have a huge influx of new non-Anglo students….

As a result of immigration …..ALL across the country….Latinos/Hispanics, Indian, Middle Eastern, Oriental and even Russian students are joining the mix of students….

My wife’s school has children that speak over 15 languages…..

This mix of students have given native american children something their parents don’t have…

Close encounters with different human beings from different backgrounds….

And it is telling in the mindset of those children….

They aren’t afraid on new people and immigration like their parents and other old people are…..

While some of the kids may not hang out with the new arrivals….a lot in fact do….

And this is where the change in cultures meld into one…..groups of different skin toned kids skate boarding, playing basketball at the park, in study groups and yes Martha…even dating…..

Amen…..

‘And the children shall lead them’……

Meaghan Patrick, a junior at New College of Florida, a tiny liberal arts college in Sarasota, says discussing immigration with her older relatives is like “hitting your head against a brick wall.”

The Immigration discussion is framed by age….Young American don't understand their elders…..

[ “I just feel like it’s unfair what the government does to immigrants.” ANDREA BONVECCHIO, 17-year-old U.S.-born daughter of a naturalized citizen. ]

BECAUSE of the nations immigration……

Most young people these days have vastly different takes on the issue…

There are very few grade schools and High Schools that don’t have a huge influx of new non-Anglo students….

As a result of immigration …..ALL across the country….Latinos/Hispanics, Indian, Middle Eastern, Oriental and even Russian students are joining the mix of students….

My wife’s school has children that speak over 15 languages…..

This mix of students have given native american children something their parents don’t have…

Close encounters with different human beings from different backgrounds….

And it is telling in the mindset of those children….

They aren’t afraid on new people and immigration like their parents and other old people are…..

While some of the kids may not hang out with the new arrivals….a lot in fact do….

And this is where the change in cultures meld into one…..groups of different skin toned kids skate boarding, playing basketball at the park, in study groups and yes Martha…even dating…..

Amen…..

‘And the children shall lead them’……

Meaghan Patrick, a junior at New College of Florida, a tiny liberal arts college in Sarasota, says discussing immigration with her older relatives is like “hitting your head against a brick wall.”

A small New York State Town makes English a requirement for town business…..

Ok…here we go!……

My wife is always grumbling……

If you come to America….

You have to learn to speak English…..

You know what?

If you go to France you’re gonna have problems not speaking French…

In Spain you’re gonna be hard pressed to do anything without knowing some spanish….

In China…you won’t far without understanding some Chinese…..

Me ….I agree…

I have no problem with different languages…

I game examples of language usage in Europe…

But I know near the borders of those countries people know SEVERAL languages…

But should we legislate the language policy????

It’s about 2,500 miles from this green, rural town in the rolling hills near Vermont to the Mexican border atNogales, but that hasn’t stopped Jackson from making a bid to be New York’s small version of Arizona in the immigration wars.

Or that’s how it is beginning to feel two months after Jackson — which has 1,700 people, no village, no grocery store or place to buy gasoline, no church, no school, two restaurants and maybe a few Spanish-speaking farm workers — decided it needed a law requiring that all town business be conducted in English.

One nearby town, Argyle, has since passed a similar resolution. A third, Easton, is likely to consider one at its Town Board meeting in June. The law has already put Jackson at odds with the New York Civil Liberties Union, which says it violates state and federal law. But in the great American echo chamber, every mouse gets to roar, so Roger Meyer, who proposed the law, feels he is making progress toward protecting the English language from threats near and far.

“For too long, the federal government has shirked its duty by not passing English as the official language of the United States,” said Mr. Meyer, 76, a Town Council member and retiree who runs Chains Unlimited, a sawmill and chain saw and logging supply company. “So seeing as this law couldn’t be passed from the top down, I felt I’d start a grass-roots movement to try to get it passed from the bottom up.”

The law designates English as the town’s official written and spoken language, “to be used in all official meetings and business conducted by the elected officials and their appointees.”

The civil liberties union has asked the board to rescind the ordinance.

“The English language is not under attack in Jackson or anywhere else in the state or country,” said Melanie Trimble, director of the civil liberties union’s capital region chapter.

The group said the law prohibited constitutionally protected speech and discriminated against anyone with limited English skills who tried to conduct business with the town, whether they wished to report a crime or to testify in local court or to obtain a building permit. It contains no exceptions for medical emergencies and police investigations, in which public health and safety are at stake, the group said………

More……..

The question will probably be kicked up to the Federal Courts …who will hold that the issue of language IS a Federal issue…

The towns adopting this policy know that…..

The more basic question is…..

What’s right for a little town in  upstate New York ?…….  verses what should apply to New York City? ……

Obama and the Latino’s……..

This from Tom Schaller @ FiveThirtyEigth.…..

It basically reports that Congressman Luis Gutierrez is quietly pushing against his President…avocating Latino’s to seriously think about not voting in Novemeber……Just a partial following on the action would have serious consequences for Democrats….

The fact remains…just like with liberal’s…..Obama WILL NOT come thru with all his campaign promises……

Latino’s have the democrat’s attenntion..but the window for  bill as contentious as Immigration is just about gone until the day AFTER the November elections….

This is not going to be fun for Obama…

But I see no alterative for the President and his party….

Everyone in the democratic camp better pray for majorities in the House and Senate….

Without them……Immigration and a lot of other things will be long gone…….

This past weekend I attended the Midwest Political Science Association’s annual meetings at the Palmer House in Chicago. Local Congressman Luis Gutierrez gave the Pi Sigma Alpha lecture on Friday afternoon, and he spoke at length about immigration reform, the developing situation in Arizona, and his worry that President Obama and the Administration will not rise to the challenge.

He did sugarcoat what he had to say. Although I didn’t have my digital tape recorder on hand to record his comments in regard to immigration and the Administration, I can assure you Gutierrez’ remarks were not as diplomatic as this recent press release on the subject, but rather were much closer tohis recent Huffington Post comments, in which he expressed his growing impatience with Obama. He also flatly called Obama’s promise to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill in his first year a “broken promise.” More to the (electoral) point, Gutierrez has begun to openly suggest that he may consider encouraging Latinos to stay home this November which, if they did, would exacerbate the Democrats’ expected problems and electoral losses.

Gutierrez is not your typical Obama critic, mind you. When most other Latino elected officials were lining up behind Hillary Clinton in late 2007, he sided with his fellow Chicagoan. That not only made him an outlier among national Latinos; it also made him an outlier in his own part of the city, where he says all of the Latino wards were carried by Clinton, not Obama–just as she didoverall in key states and nationally during the primary.

In short, Gutierrez says he stuck out his neck for Obama. And now, in what he calls the “civil rights fight” of this generation, he wants the President to stick out his neck for Latinos, particularly those who Gutierrez predicts will likely be profiled for rounding up in Arizona.
There’s More…

Obama and the Latino's……..

This from Tom Schaller @ FiveThirtyEigth.…..

It basically reports that Congressman Luis Gutierrez is quietly pushing against his President…avocating Latino’s to seriously think about not voting in Novemeber……Just a partial following on the action would have serious consequences for Democrats….

The fact remains…just like with liberal’s…..Obama WILL NOT come thru with all his campaign promises……

Latino’s have the democrat’s attenntion..but the window for  bill as contentious as Immigration is just about gone until the day AFTER the November elections….

This is not going to be fun for Obama…

But I see no alterative for the President and his party….

Everyone in the democratic camp better pray for majorities in the House and Senate….

Without them……Immigration and a lot of other things will be long gone…….

This past weekend I attended the Midwest Political Science Association’s annual meetings at the Palmer House in Chicago. Local Congressman Luis Gutierrez gave the Pi Sigma Alpha lecture on Friday afternoon, and he spoke at length about immigration reform, the developing situation in Arizona, and his worry that President Obama and the Administration will not rise to the challenge.

He did sugarcoat what he had to say. Although I didn’t have my digital tape recorder on hand to record his comments in regard to immigration and the Administration, I can assure you Gutierrez’ remarks were not as diplomatic as this recent press release on the subject, but rather were much closer tohis recent Huffington Post comments, in which he expressed his growing impatience with Obama. He also flatly called Obama’s promise to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill in his first year a “broken promise.” More to the (electoral) point, Gutierrez has begun to openly suggest that he may consider encouraging Latinos to stay home this November which, if they did, would exacerbate the Democrats’ expected problems and electoral losses.

Gutierrez is not your typical Obama critic, mind you. When most other Latino elected officials were lining up behind Hillary Clinton in late 2007, he sided with his fellow Chicagoan. That not only made him an outlier among national Latinos; it also made him an outlier in his own part of the city, where he says all of the Latino wards were carried by Clinton, not Obama–just as she didoverall in key states and nationally during the primary.

In short, Gutierrez says he stuck out his neck for Obama. And now, in what he calls the “civil rights fight” of this generation, he wants the President to stick out his neck for Latinos, particularly those who Gutierrez predicts will likely be profiled for rounding up in Arizona.
There’s More…

What’s Wrong with Arizona?

That question was first asked by Susan Estrich in a blogged piece on April 21st, this year……

But the question seems to have taken on more meaning then Estrich’s reference to the states Immigration law policy for police officers……

The piece below lends the question to several other issues in the state……

Gun laws, The Presidential Birther issue, GOP Senate Primary, a Governor that disparages her own state, and more and more California transplants along with legal and Illegal immigrants…..

[ Last fall, the state’s governor, Jan Brewer, was caught on video in Tucson expressing her ‘great relief, to say the least, to get out of that hellhole in Phoenix.’ ]

There’s an immigration measure that effectively converts the state’s police departments into immigration officers, mandating that they stop and question people they suspect of being undocumented immigrants.

And there’s the new gun law that allows anyone besides convicted felons to carry concealed weapons without registration or background checks.

Finally, for good measure, there’s the sideshow Republican Senate primary starring J.D. Hayworth, a serious challenger to Sen. John McCain, and his now-famous observation that same sex marriage laws would lead to men marrying horses.

So, what is the matter with Arizona?

“Relationships have just deteriorated to the point where government is not serving its essential function, which is serving the people,” said Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley. “The rhetoric has gone up several notches to the point where everyone is taking it personally.”

“Immigration is the federal government’s responsibility, and we have failed to address it,” Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said in a statement to POLITICO. “State and local governments, particularly in Arizona, are bearing the brunt of our inaction, so I don’t blame the Arizona legislature for trying to pick up the slack.”

Flake said the immigration measure “isn’t the bill I would have written, but it’s difficult to criticize the state for trying to deal with a problem created by the federal government.”

“People are asking ‘what’s the matter with Arizona’” added Andrei Cherny, a Democratic candidate for Arizona treasurer in a post in POLITICO’s Arena. “Under the very brightly shining sun, we too are losing our wealth, population, and standing. But there is nothing wrong with Arizona – except for the ‘leaders’ the state has elected to public office.”

More……

What's Wrong with Arizona?

That question was first asked by Susan Estrich in a blogged piece on April 21st, this year……

But the question seems to have taken on more meaning then Estrich’s reference to the states Immigration law policy for police officers……

The piece below lends the question to several other issues in the state……

Gun laws, The Presidential Birther issue, GOP Senate Primary, a Governor that disparages her own state, and more and more California transplants along with legal and Illegal immigrants…..

[ Last fall, the state’s governor, Jan Brewer, was caught on video in Tucson expressing her ‘great relief, to say the least, to get out of that hellhole in Phoenix.’ ]

There’s an immigration measure that effectively converts the state’s police departments into immigration officers, mandating that they stop and question people they suspect of being undocumented immigrants.

And there’s the new gun law that allows anyone besides convicted felons to carry concealed weapons without registration or background checks.

Finally, for good measure, there’s the sideshow Republican Senate primary starring J.D. Hayworth, a serious challenger to Sen. John McCain, and his now-famous observation that same sex marriage laws would lead to men marrying horses.

So, what is the matter with Arizona?

“Relationships have just deteriorated to the point where government is not serving its essential function, which is serving the people,” said Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley. “The rhetoric has gone up several notches to the point where everyone is taking it personally.”

“Immigration is the federal government’s responsibility, and we have failed to address it,” Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said in a statement to POLITICO. “State and local governments, particularly in Arizona, are bearing the brunt of our inaction, so I don’t blame the Arizona legislature for trying to pick up the slack.”

Flake said the immigration measure “isn’t the bill I would have written, but it’s difficult to criticize the state for trying to deal with a problem created by the federal government.”

“People are asking ‘what’s the matter with Arizona’” added Andrei Cherny, a Democratic candidate for Arizona treasurer in a post in POLITICO’s Arena. “Under the very brightly shining sun, we too are losing our wealth, population, and standing. But there is nothing wrong with Arizona – except for the ‘leaders’ the state has elected to public office.”

More……