I’m not an anchor baby

Alvaro Huerta

McClatchy Newspapers

I’m the son of Mexican immi­grants, but I ain’t no anchor baby.

My late father first migrated to the United States during the 1950s via the Bracero Program, in which more than 4.6 million rural Mexi­cans performed desperately needed agricultural work in this country. He worked long hours, six days a week, for little pay and under terrible conditions. Later, as a legal permanent resident, he per­formed factory work for decades at sub-minimum wage.

Meanwhile, my late mother orig­inally came to this country during the 1960s, securing employment as a house cleaner for mostly white, middle-class families. Lacking for­mal education, like my father, she worked as a domestic worker for more than 40 years. This did not stop her, however, as a naturalized U.S. citizen, from seeking more clients in her twilight years.

Currently, U.S. politicians like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Lind­sey Graham, R-S.C., are making a big fuss about the U.S.-born chil­dren of undocumented immi­grants. They’re calling for a change in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which stipulates that all persons born in the United States are citizens. According to Graham, undocumented immi­grants come to this country simply to “drop a child,” or what he pejo­ratively refers to “Drop and Leave.” While Republicans endlessly talk about “family values” and the sanctity of the unborn child, when it comes to Latino immigrants, they defame the family unit and attack brown children. They are consciously instilling fear in the American public by scapegoating Latinos (both documented and undocumented) in this country.

Let’s not forget that the controver­sial Arizona law, now held up in court, required police to stop any­one they suspected was here ille­gally – and that could mean all brown-skinned people.

Responding to the anti-immi­grant agenda, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., prop­erly questioned how any person of Latino heritage could be a Repub­lican. Reid should be applauded for calling out Latino Republicans for belonging to a political party that is hostile to them.

Instead of dealing with appalling unemployment figures, high home-foreclosure rates and lack of credit for small businesses, Repub­licans are targeting the most vul­nerable population in this country: undocumented immigrants. By doing so, they are no different than schoolyard bullies. Didn’t they learn basic manners, such as treat­ing others with respect and dig­nity? I certainly learned those les­sons from my parents.

My parents taught my siblings and me to be good and generous to others. They also encouraged us to pursue higher education so that we don’t experience the same hardships they faced both in Mex­ico and this country.

My late parents came to this country to seek work and a better life for themselves and their family. They sacrificed themselves – toil­ing in backbreaking, low-wage, dead-end jobs – so their children could pursue better opportunities not available in their homeland.

Instead of praising them for their sacrifice and hard work, Republicans continue to bash and tarnish the memory of my parents and the millions of others like them in this country.

This is shameful.

Alvaro Huerta is a visiting scholar at UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center.