Assaults against Latinos have steadily been on the increase since 2008 when the American economy entered a recession.
By Alfredo Sanchez
Assaults against Latinos have steadily been on the increase since 2008 when the American economy entered a recession. One of the most recent assaults was delivered by Presidential Candidate, Donald Trump. Most Latinos are familiar with Mr. Trump’s depiction of Latinos. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” – Donald J. Trump. Mr. Trump, only a second generation German American immigrant, must not be familiar with the mafia problems of the Italians and Irish. He must also not be familiar with the Germans’ mercenary activity when the British employed German mercenaries to fight against American Patriots during the American Revolution or the havoc his German ancestry created in starting two World Wars and killing millions of Jews.
As a result of his statement, several companies have refused to do business with Mr. Trump. What is surprising is the wide support Donald Trump has among the Republican conservatives. He is now reported to be the leading Presidential Candidate for the Republican Party even after such racist statements. What does this say about the Republican Party? Very little outrage has come from the Republican Party.
Another assault on Latinos is occurring in South Texas. The 14th Amendment, for 150 years, has recognized people born in the United States as citizens regardless of whether their parents were citizens.
In certain counties in Texas, in the last year, birth certificates have been refused to United States born children of undocumented parents. In May, Jennifer Harbury, a lawyer with Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, filed four civil rights lawsuit against the Texas Department of State Health Services. The lawsuit alleges constitutional discrimination and interference in the federal government’s authority over immigration. “Jennifer Harbury, a lawyer with Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, who is representing the women, said the deluge of birth certificate refusals began last winter. ‘I’ve never seen such a large number of women with this problem.’”
Cameron and Hidalgo counties have refused to issue birth certificates because of insufficient proof of their identities. State law allows the use of a foreign ID if the mother lacks a Texas driver’s license or a U.S. passport.
“Local officials that issue birth certificates registered by the Texas Department of State Health Services Vital Statistics Unit, told the women they would no longer accept either the matricula consular, which is a photo ID issued by the Mexican Consulate to Mexican nationals living in the US, or a foreign passport without a current US Visa”. Undocumented Central American women are also being turned away because they only have a passport without a US Visa. “They are locking out a huge chunk of the undocumented immigrant community,” says Harbury.
“Even in the darkest hours of Texas’ history of discrimination, officials never denied birth certificates to Hispanic children of immigrants.”
Has this also happened in Denton? If this has happened to anyone in Denton or surrounding Counties contact your local League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). LULAC started in 1929 as a result of blatant discrimination against Latinos. LULAC’s objectives is to expose, fight against, and eradicate racist acts against Latinos.
Many of the new immigrants are unfamiliar with the racism that occurred against Latinos in American’s earlier history. Recently I was talking to an individual whom I would consider rather educated, whose family emigrated from Mexico in the 1970’s. She was completely oblivious to the history of discrimination against Latinos in American History. She was clueless about LULAC, their mission and why they came into existence. There is a saying that those who do not know history or forget it are destined to repeat it.
Are Latinos in the United States, because they do not know the struggles of previous Latino generations destined to allow history to repeat itself? I would hope not. Are we going back to those days when Latinos were excluded from education, were refused service in restaurants, could not drink from the same water fountain as whites, etc. etc.? In the case of my father who had come to work in Texas to pick cotton and brought with him his children, wife, and mother all to pick cotton and earn a little money. After picking the cotton the owner called the Sheriff and had them and other families removed from his land and never paid them.
So how do we fight this blatant racism? If we are a nation of Laws, then we Latinos need to get involved in our communities and vote. Vote to elect representatives that work for Latinos not against us. Vote to overwhelm those voters that want to pass laws that discriminate against Latinos or anyone. Politicians like to use the phrase, “we are a nation of laws.” Laws can make anything legal and depending on who is in charge will determine how Latinos are treated. Laws institutionalized slavery, restricted civil rights, and made racism legal. This nation of Laws made slavery legal and forced Latinos to live in sub-human conditions. Latinos had to live in these conditions until the early 1960’s.
Is America going back to those days? Only if we Latinos stay disengaged.