| HOW IMMIGRANTS VIEW IMMIGRANTS |
| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Tuesday, April 11 2006 |
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| Amando Serrano has been making a decent living as a welder for the past 18 years in a San Diego factory. But he wasn't always so fortunate. When he arrived in the United States in 1984 from the Mexican state of Hidalgo, he had to do some hard labor as a maintenance worker in order to survive. He had crossed the border illegally after losing his job when the Renault manufacturing plant where he worked closed down.
Now a legal resident of the U.S., Serrano is waiting to get his citizenship and live the American Dream, and he thinks that millions of undocumented workers who live in this country should have the same chance. He is one of 800 people from 43 countries who participated in a poll conducted by Bendixen and Associates to determine how legal immigrants in this country view the immigration debate and the role of undocumented immigrants.
What the survey shows is that a great majority of them -- 67 percent, to be exact -- feel that an anti-immigrant sentiment is growing in the United States, and more than half feel it is affecting them and their families directly.
One of the strongest arguments we hear against a guest-worker program is that undocumented workers take jobs away from Americans and legal residents. But the Bendixen poll showed that 81 percent believe that statement is not true. What's more, 73 percent believe that undocumented immigrants actually help the economy by providing low-cost labor.
Proposals to criminalize undocumented immigrants and those who help them don't get a lot of support from legal residents, either. "You cannot treat a person as a criminal just because they don't have a piece of paper," said Rosa Medina, who also participated in the poll.
Like Serrano, Medina arrived in this country illegally, but has been a U.S. citizen for 15 years. Although she supports a guest-worker program, she believes that privilege should only be for those who benefit the country. Serrano goes further. He believes that undocumented immigrants should not only be legalized but should have full benefits. "This is a country of immigrants," he said. "We are not criminals, we are people who need to work and forge a future for our children."
Claudia Spencer, another Mexican citizen who lives in San Diego, has a completely different view. I debated her on the Fox News Network, and she claimed undocumented workers should not be given any opportunities. "They don't deserve to be here, because they are breaking the law," she said.
There are many immigrants who think like her, although -- according to the Bendixen poll -- they are in the minority. Those who believe that undocumented immigrants would be given a free ride under a guest-worker program don't have their information straight. It is still unclear which of the many immigration proposals debated on Capitol Hill will become law. But even the most immigrant-friendly one, the Kennedy-McCain bill, would make guest workers wait at least six years before they could apply for legalization, and even then they would have to pay a fine and get in the back of the line to get it. It doesn't sound like a free ride to me.
The immigration debate could have a political backlash for both parties. Seventy-seven percent of the respondents in the Bendixen poll are registered voters, and they don't give either political party high marks for its handling of the immigration issue.
Medina, for one, will be following the debate and watching the vote very closely: "As a voter, I look for politicians that benefit our community." For now, she said, neither has impressed her.
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