I rent homes, mostly to illegal Mexican immigrants. This is the first time in 20 years I’ve allowed myself to tell that to anyone but my friends. I write this anonymously to protect both my tenants and me from legal prosecution—or should I say “persecution”?
I’m sure I represent a huge group of silenced employers, businesspeople and friends, who deal with immigrants almost every day and see them as very valuable members of this society.
They are my best customers. They’re happy to have a place with ceramic floors and nice refrigerators—often for the first time in their lives. Both husband and wife use whatever skills they have to find work and keep a clean home, pay bills and taxes, and raise their children. By the values that we use to judge the worth of our own citizens, they make the grade in every way.
I got notice this morning from a family who has rented from me for 10 years—and was never once late with the rent. They are moving to Nogales, Mexico, out of fear of what might happen to them when SB 1070 becomes law.
Their adolescent sons were born here. Both are culturally very American. It will be very difficult for them to transition to the lower-quality schools in a country they know only through their parents’ stories of their youth.
Part of me wants to beg my tenants not to go. If SB 1070 is struck down, or there is finally real immigration reform, they may lose a path to citizenship or legal residency by going back to Mexico. But the husband’s fear of getting caught up in the nightmare of a workplace sweep that could land him in detention for months prior to deportation—unable to support his family or even keep the furniture and other assets he’s worked so hard for—is a real possibility.
Those who wish to persecute a segment of the population use socioeconomic, political and legal marginalization, so the outcast group cannot defend itself. By denying legal status to immigrants and keeping them at the bottom rung of the wage scale, we have created a class of silent and docile people who live in a constant state of anxiety and isolation.
Let’s try just a few of those lines. “They don’t want to learn English!” “They’re only crossing the border to bring drugs across!” “They’re here committing crimes and leaving headless bodies in the desert!” The governor of Arizona can make these kinds of baseless claims all day long (as she does!), but I can’t stand up and say, “Not me! I don’t know anyone who behaves that way!” Our voices are strangled by a legal noose that seeks to systematically choke off any perception that any of our Mexican brethren are human and deserve consideration.
I now have to decide what kind of person I will be. Can I do more good by keeping silent and not exposing myself or my current tenants to more risk? Or should I put both them and my business at risk and openly support those who have no voice in order to try to change the course of the toxic tide that seems to be sweeping Arizona?
I choose to stay anonymous for this day, but know that the next set of anti-immigrant laws will probably force me as a landlord to ID anyone who rents from me. Yet more of my friends and customers will soon be forced out of the lives they know.
The words to that old adage ring profoundly in my ears: “When they came to take the Jews, I did not speak. When they came to take me, no one was left to speak.” Will our community unite to defend those who are silenced, or will we look back years from now in embarrassment and shame for what we didn’t say?
This article appears in Jul 29 – Aug 4, 2010.
I think this editorial makes the point very clearly. Some of them ARE bringing drugs, some of them ARE leaving headless bodies in the desert. Shouldn’t there be SOME control over this? Or, do we just ignore it.
I wonder, how many people who aren’t making MONEY off them support SB1070?
Your tenants may otherwise be fine people; however whether they are or not, the fact remains that they have thumbed their noses at US laws and sovereignty. The choice of who comes to America is ours, not theirs. And until such time as they are in compliance with the laws which the US and every other country in the world is free (and wise) to adopt, including Mexico, with immigration laws far stricter than ours, the presence of your tenants is rightfully illegal.
Mexico is blessed with all of the natural resources and industrious people it needs to lift itself up from the mess they are in. It is not our job to fix Mexico. I don’t deny that many, likely including your tenants, want a “better life” however one defines that. Again, though, Mexico needs to fix itself first.
I failed to also address this comment in the piece:
“By denying legal status to immigrants and keeping them at the bottom rung of the wage scale, we have created a class of silent and docile people who live in a constant state of anxiety and isolation.”
We have not denied them legal status – their individual actions did so. There is a long established process, followed by thousands every year, of legal entry into and residency in the US. The mere fact that they are here does not warrant waiving the legal requirements for them and telling everyone who waited and obeyed the laws and rules that they were foolish for doing so.
Geoguy says that “Mexico is blessed with all of the natural resources and industrious people it needs to lift itself up from the mess they are in.” This U of A video explains why Mexico is poorer than the United States; there are very real reasons why the USA offers more opportunity than Mexico : http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.w… . More cooperation between Mexico and the US would be good for both countries.
Like most article of this type ,Anonymous switches from illegal to immigrants.
No one is fooled, they are not the same.
He is benefiting from them being here illegally but those who are not profiting from the crimes are being hurt.
The basic laws of supply and demand work well if you are the land lord when it comes to masses of illegals.
It doesn’t work for those of us who obey the law and compete for jobs, pay taxes- ours and theirs- fund their childrens education and medical.
Illegal aliens hurt Americans at the bottom of the pay scale the most.
An American housekeeper who is hardly getting by is devastated by these illegals.
Higher up the income scale construction workers who use to make a wage where they could support a family , now find themselves unemployed but a crew of Spanish only workers are employed.
The land lord is a traitor to America and Americans.
“keeping them at the bottom rung of the wage scale”
I also know people who came here illegally. The legal way means 10+ years on a wait list. These people aren’t “thumbing their noses” at our laws. They have done something desperate in an attempt to have a decent life for themselves and their children.
Also, there aren’t any decapitated bodies in our desert – one of the many lies our governor uses as scare tactics to push her agenda.
Think of it this way: If our economic situations were reversed and people in the US went to Mexico to work, I think we’d be calling those people heroes. Because the situation is reversed, we call them “illegal” and worse.
We need a law that will allow people to come, work, and return home. Ir we did this, illegal immigration would slow to a trickle.
Most immigrants applying for permanent US status need to have an employer show that they are unable to find workers and need to hire immigrants with the skills they need. Since the flattening of the minimum wage in the U.S. employers during the boom years couldn’t find many legal residents willing to work for near poverty wages, however there were immigrants–both legal and illegal.
The underlying issue is wages, low wages in the US and a lot of low wage employers in Arizona. Companies preferred to keep their costs down by hiring those who would accept the low wages and were willing to bypass E-verify in order to do that. Now we have high unemployment and a lot of people who have legal status who may be willing to do any work at any wage in order to try to put food on the table and a roof over their families heads. When the economy turns around, which it will eventually, those workers with skills will abandon low wage jobs to return to the careers they are trained for.
The other side of this coin is the driving down of prices for consumer goods made
possible by very low wages. There is a direct connection to cheap beef and chicken in the grocery and low wages at the meat packing plant in Iowa. We benefit from the influx of immigrants (legal or illegal) who take these low wage jobs. Are we willing to take a job at 7.75/hr that is dirty, dangerous and will require us to have a second job in order to support our family? Are we willing to pay a fair price for hamburger and chicken legs in order to allow for living wages to be paid to workers?
The issue of illegal immigration is an economic issue that most Americans are unwilling to address. It is an issue of fair and living wages: an issue that when brought up seems to elicit cries of Socialism and worse. Capitalism cannot thrive when more than 50% of workers are not paid a fair and living wage. Until we can address low wages, we will be all complicit in encouraging hiring of illegal workers and we will be contributing to a a stagnant economic system that is at risk if the balance of worker income tips to the point where those at the bottom now become the majority.
Thank you for writing this article. I think it is sad that the only people compelled to put comments here seem so limited in their perceptions of this issue. This situation has been going on for a very long time, and there is no easy, cut and dried, pat answer to it. We are talking about human beings, and I find the lack of compassion and narrow-mindedness I see in these comments very disturbing. Name calling and a “round them up and deport them” mentality will not solve this problem. SB1070 is just a scam to make our current politicians look good to their conservative base in the upcoming election. It doesn’t contain any laws we don’t already have on the books, it just puts an extra burden on our already overburdened police force, courts and jails. On the other hand, it has the potential to generate more lawsuits than even Sheriff Joe.
In reality, these people make an economic contribution to our state that we really can’t afford to lose. There are a lot of things we can do to start addressing this issue. Taking another step backward in social progress is not one of them. This law will ultimately prove unenforceable because the bottom line is we can’t afford what it will cost. Unfortunately, a lot of people will suffer while we find that out.
You do know that every action your immigrants do once they get here illegally is founded on a crime. I have no doubt that thousands of Mexicans do the right thing and obey the law to come here. The illegals need to go home or at the very least go to the back of the line and become legal residents. If that means they have to go back to Mexico or where ever they came from and start the process there, then so be it. That is the consequence of their illegal act. We can’t lock up these people. I don’t even want to, but I think fairness requires some penalty.
Excellent guest commentary! It puts a human face on the issue.
I do NOT think the undocumented should go anywhere but to a Federal office to fill out a citizenship application. Hopefully the Federal solution to the border problem will include that choice for the millions of people living in the U.S. without permission without draconian deportations.
To send people back to Mexico or other countries of origin, after they live in the U.S. for years, have children here, pay their rent on time, pay taxes, demonstrate a family priority largely lacking among Anglos and otherwise conduct themselves in a fashion that is the envy of many … sending these people out of the United States would be a crime, an unethical, immoral action abhorrent to me.
I am grateful for this article. I have had many friends over the years who were here escaping persecution in other countries, or just looking for a better life.
For those of you who have no compassion for other people, regardless of their legal status, I hope that at least one person gets their eyes opened a little from this article.
I think it is telling that if your skin is a certain color and you break a certain law, then you are ‘illegal’ and everything you do is illegal. But if you break a different law and your skin is a different color, then you are someone who has committed a crime.
People from Europe came here and took everything from the people who lived here and we are all benefitting from that. Many people came together and built this very community and they came from all over the world and many were undocumented.
It is unfortunate that people exaggerate or completely fabricate stories about the ‘illegals’ coming up from the south. Maybe your arguments would be heard by more people if you spoke the truth and kept an open mind?
Bottom line is ALL Illegal Immigrants knowingly and willfully broke US law by crossing into this country without taking the proper steps. And no one cannot dispute this. That is why we have people dying in an unforgiving and punishing desert. The author of this article is a bleeding heart and thank goodness they only rent houses and are not in government. What is so hard with compliance of US LAWS regarding immigration and entry into this country? And those Americans who openly promote and encourage the breaking of FEDERAL LAW and our CONSTITUTION are traitors to this country. But of course they are quick to hide behind the 1st amendment of that very same Constitution they advocate noncompliance. Incredible. I fully support SB1070 and stand behind the Governor as she fights this liberal marxist administration and openly call for Arizonans to vote out those who oppose this fight or encourage harm to our state, like Raul Grijalva who called for an economic boycott of our great state. Tick-tock, tick-tock… November is fast approaching.
What I don’t get is all this “shame on AZ for racist law” the AZ law makes no distintion on race, just status. What is very racist is the federal laws that are being broken here, they need to be fixed. Ignoring them is not a fix, if it is lets just ignore all stupid, and ignorant laws. I’d like to start by ignoring the law passed to pay for WW1.
Dont worry “anonymous”, Barack has a plan for a “pathway to citizenship” for the undocumented Democrats. THEN you can come out of the shadows and tell us how they are paying taxes and doing jobs that no one else will do. Better yet, since you believe you are doing these undocumented Democrats such a service, you can charge more in rent for their linoleum floors and refrigerators. And then you can get ready for more undocumemted Democrats to expect more then hard floors and ice boxes. But I’d be careful….if Barry has his way , he’ll cut-and-run from Tuscon faster then he will from Kabul.
My parents came to this country from Eastern Europe, didn’t speak the language, had no money, yet somehow became citizens, worked hard, never, ever denounced the country they came to live in, or carried their flag of origin and waved it in everyone’s face. If someone leaves their country because they can’t survive and want to make their life in America, it is not because they love where they come from. They are leaving because they don’t like it there, or are unsafe, so why do they still act like Mexico is a paradise. I would be embarrassed to say I came from a country that couldn’t find the way to value their people. So all of you Mexicans that I myself have heard complaining how bad America is either go back, and take your flags with you, or shut the hell up, be happy you have people that would be willing to rent to you. My immigrant parents wouldn’t have. And all the detainees who are in prison because of the crimes they committed get sent back and turn around and come right back…they laugh at the American Justice system…we getting a free ride baby..from these stupid gringo’s was a favorite term. And doesn’t a landlord have to pay taxes on the properties being rented, and the tenants name has to be documented as living there. How many of you do real background checks to ensure you are not renting to repeat offenders. You do realize when someone is stopped for speeding or operating a vehicle recklessly they need to show a license and registration for the vehicle. When the police run the check some are wanted felons, child molesters, drug and people smugglers. What shall we do with them, provide them equal employment, fair housing, free medical care? I know a lot of mexicans are hard workers, but their are some that are criminals, take advantage of a system that can’t help their own people, I say if you are not breaking the law, assist in their status, if they are here to commit crimes, and repeatedly do so….put an electric fence up same as they do in the prisons, the first time they try to come across it’ s a gentle push, but then the intensity keeps building until they are jolted, a bit archaic, but I like the idea. Bottom line is law abiding citizens do try to stay under the radar. But the one’s that have records, come back and find some one’s teenage daughter to impregnate and then leave those kids, go off and commit crimes, end up in jail, do their time end up at the detention centers..how do their deserted families afford the high rents in tucson, 1200 plus for a 3 or 4 bedroom, how do they afford that? Do they go on section 8. I don’t know. I met hundreds of men whose kids were being raised by teenage girls.One more thing, I do see way way way too many very young women with a multitude of children…Is there no planned parenthood in Arizona, and if there is why isn’t their location posted and translated on the school buses and bus stops… i just keep thinking of A Clockwork Orange…
what for?,
Between you and anonymous, I am stymied. I simply can’t decide which of you is the bigger coward. What a quandry.
Robert Alexander Dumas
Santayana’s warning to learn the lessons of history the easy way rather than the hard way is carved in concrete on the steps of the Yavapai Courthouse in Prescott. Apparently no one making immigration policy in Phoenix or DC has visited there recently. The first civil war in our country was dark people’s rights versus states’ rights versus white people’s rights versus federal supremacy. Sound familiar? Because we could be on the verge of a rerun having learned nothing from that dark period. I know of one Tucson household where the two domestic partners would end up on opposing sides if a blue and a gray army would draw up sides over the rights of illegal aliens to keep doing what 12 million have already done.
If we woke tomorrow in the star trek future where all want, need, poverty, coveting of resources and exploitation of raw materials miraculously were equalized and obviated, it would not matter who lived where. Americans could move to Canada if we chose. North Koreans could move to Japan. Turks to France, Somalis to Italy. . .you get the idea. But see how far you might get crossing to the north for the better health care and sane civilized behavior now in our 2010 pre-United Federation of Planets reality. You can’t. There is no electric fence at the Canadian border, but there is force of arms to deter that which is allowed, encouraged, defended, prayed for and openly advocated down here.
The defense of the indefensible will continue in the abstract on these pages and in cyberspace until some flashpoint ignites this invisible gas and blows the doors down. Thank you Tucson Weekly for opening the valves and handing everybody a BIC to flick. What we need are hard answers to unhappy questions; not warm and fuzzy “human faces” to feel sorry for. Talk to some thoughtful people who are willing to be quoted by name, and print their ideas for a peaceful way to back out of this methane filled cave while we still can. Whoever “anonymous” is, his or her actions and self-righteousness are a poor model for anyone to follow. –Thomas Higgins
it very interested to see how many people think about the imigrants legals or ilegals
Well let me just bring my personal opinion.
Ilegals is no only the ones who have economic problems, is no only the ones who just came to work thring to survive or thinking that the are surviving.
There are also professionals that for some reazon that only them now, they have to let everything behing and star from nothing, there are people who left there famillys, there older parents that probably they never going to see them again.
There are a Human being who suffer, who crie, who pray; there like any of you whit problems, whit needs,whit weakness like every one , like you, whe are not the brown ones, whe are not the beaners, whe are not the weet backs, WHE are Humans like you
Drugs please lie to your self today USA have one state where the drugs are part and also what make the living, stop creathing scuses and bleaming others, if we read i can lett you now what creat prostitution and drug dealers in the boarder is people from this side.
Don’t say something that you dont really now.