Illegals taking brunt of fears, frustrations
John Florez
We now find ourselves living in the parentheses — the in-between time — feeling insecure, wondering about our future, what to do, whom to blame and why our government is failing us.
The 9/11 attack made us feel vulnerable from the outside, and Hurricane Katrina made us feel vulnerable from the inside. Both left us fearful and let down by our own government. Many Americans were bewildered, angry and wondering where to turn for answers in order to feel safe once again. Others did what humans do when attacked and vulnerable: They looked for someone to blame. They look for easy scapegoats. Societies all too often have done this as a collective defensive mechanism and with less than a rational reaction. Case in point: the internment of Japanese Americans at the outbreak of World War II. It is only recently that our government talked about reparation for its wrongdoing.
Rather than blaming a government that failed to protect us after the 9/11 terrorist attack and the Katrina natural disaster, some have vented their frustration on the most vulnerable people living and working in the shadows of our communities — undocumented immigrants.
With the convergence of 9/11 and globalization, America had to compete in the world marketplace that prompted the outsourcing of good-paying jobs and importing cheap labor. The fastest growing segment of our nation's work force is immigrant labor. One might expect that the increase consists mainly of Mexican workers readily responding to indiscriminate employers' "now hiring" signs.
In the meantime, our national leaders, rather than renewing our immigration policies to reflect today's environment in the public's interest, choose to play ostrich and allow employers to reap the benefits of our broken immigration laws. They fail to secure our borders and deal with the economic and social realities we now face.
It is easy to see illegal immigration as the sole problem, rather than a symptom of the larger challenges facing our nation. We now have a government that is unable to protect us from outside attacks and natural disasters. It leaves states to struggle with the growing polarization of citizens who find solace in only focusing on a symptom of what ails our nation.
In Utah, we find commercial and financial business people gearing up to reap the benefits of a growing Hispanic market without much angst as to whether customers are legal or not. Yet, they don't seem to care how their selfish interests have put great demands on our schools, health and public safety service systems.
You can be the first to comment on this story.