When in this nation's proud history did immigration require schools to spend millions to educate students who cannot speak English (the Clovis, N.M., school district is offering $1,569 stipends to bilingual teachers because of the need). When in the past did immigration overrun the nation's emergency rooms with patients, many indigent or here illegally, and jack up the already-rising cost of health care? When did immigration require governments to produce documents in foreign languages, not to mention put blame on law enforcement for not being able to communicate in a foreign language? How about government services?Of course there would be no U.S. of A. were it not for immigration, but Dave thinks ahead and answers his own question:
This is not the early 20th century. Times have changed.Have times changed? There was indeed a time when immigrants were allowed into this country in droves. In fact, one now famous facility was set up to handle part of the influx - Ellis Island.
Hordes of European scum, probably Irish,
force their way into our beloved country.
Millions of European immigrants passed through halls of Ellis Island, being practically rubber-stamped into the country. I'm afraid I don't have the time to go digging around for ancient budget numbers, but readily available evidence suggests that a fair amount of money was spent on the facilities and personnel required to process all these immigrants.
Enjoy your potatoes, Seamus O'Fay! That better not
have come out of the taxpayers' pockets.
I'm not so doe-eyed as to believe that everyone welcomed the newcomers with open arms. There were people on both sides of immigration then as there are now. In fact, it seems the more things change the more they stay the same:
David Phillips Discusses the Chinese Question
Hinton Rowan Helper Opposes Chinese Immigration
Hostility towards immigrants is certainly nothing new:
We're all aware of the treatement the true first
immigrants received.
A family of African immigrants, who probably
don't appreciate the chance God has given them,
are processed in Richmond, VA.
Yep, you just can't trust the micks.
A Jap sympathizer prepares to be "Malkinized".
The fact of the matter is this nation has a long history of "catering" to non-English speaking people, be they legal citizens or not. In particular, bilingual education has been around for ages and certainly hasn't been restricted to Hispanics - A Timeline of Bilingual Education. Some cities offer their websites in multiple languages:
"Visit Amarillo" in German
"Visit Amarillo" in Portugese
"Visit Amarillo" in Spanish
"City of Dallas" in Spanish
City of San Francisco - Multilingual
City of Seattle - Multilingual
It isn't just government addressing this issue. Non-English newspapers are certainly nothing new.
A couple of old examples:
New Braufels' HERALD-ZEITUNG, which was published in both German and English in the past.
Il-Progresso Italo-Americano
A few contemporary examples:
Vietnam Daily News
Al Watan
World Journal
La Prensa San Diego
Truth be told, I agree that something needs to be done about illegal immigration. They are breaking the law, as are the people employing them. That fact is undeniable, but I have no doubt that the backlash against Hispanic immigrants is racist in origin. They are going to destroy our language. They are going to destroy our culture. They are going to destroy our schools. They, they, they... This anti-Hispanic sentiment is especially hypocritical when coming from Texans. Our state used to be a Mexican territory, for god sakes. Our own Amarillo takes its name from the Spanish word for "yellow".
Since I'm neither a bigot nor an isolationist, rather than rounding up millions of people for deportation I'd like to see our system streamlined so these people can be given legal working status and put on the fast track to citizenship, as has been done with the immigrants of the past. Hispanics represent a significant part of our workforce and we depend on them heavily. We should have a new Ellis Island to do the job.
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