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[SIZE=2][SIZE=2]Many of the people responding here do not sound as if they have personal experience with illegal aliens from Mexico. I do. I've lived and/or worked with illegal aliens (mostly from Mexico, but also from Central America) for at least 18 years. Here is what I have observed.
The positive: Not much. I wish I could say I've seen lots of positive behaviors from them, but I haven't. This is a big admission from me, because when I first started working with illegal aliens I was very, very supportive of them and ignored that they'd violated US immigration laws to come here. I was one of those pro-illegal alien supporters who said "no person is illegal". However over the course of 18 years of close exposure to them I've changed my mind.
I've worked as an ESL teacher on the US/Mexican border and in Deming, NM and in Albuquerque, NM. I've worked as a Spanish teacher teaching Spanish to native speakers from Mexico in Albuquerque, NM. I've also owned and operated a money/wire transfer and check cashing business (all legal, by the way) in Albuquerque, NM. All of my clientele were mostly Mexicans from Mexico or Central Americans. I was married to a well-educated and well-connected Mexican from Mexico City who chose to be a visa overstayer rather than return to Mexico to fulfill his contractual obligations for having been given a Fulbright scholarship to study in the US. I used to regularly travel to Mexico to do business and have done extensive traveling throughout Mexico for pleasure and business. I've lived with illegal Mexicans in a boarding house situation for the last 6 years. So I think I have a both depth and breadth of experience with Mexicans both legally and illegally in the US.
So here is the negative. Please bear in mind that I came to those conclusions over years of experience dealing with Mexicans living illegally in the US. Also, bear in mind that because of my work and business I've known literally hundreds of them.
1) Every Mexican, both legal and illegal, that I have ever met here in the US has an opportunistic attitude about being in the US. Every one is just looking to see what he or she can get here for free. Every one I've ever met complains about taxes and will do anything possible to not pay them. Everyone of them looks at the US as a big cash cow that they can milk without consequences.
2) Every one I've ever met steals from employers on a regular basis. For example, the construction workers I know regularly steal building materials from their bosses.
3) Every one that I have met with the exception of two have always talked about how the SW part of the US was stolen from Mexico and how they will recuperate it my immigration. They really believe that the SW US belongs to them and it is their right to be here and to use whatever is here for their own benefit.
4) They have no compunction about violating US immigration laws, laws regarding the use of SSN or ITIN, laws governing the use of cars and driver's licenses, or laws about anything else. What most people in the US fail to understand about Mexicans is that for Mexicans, laws are annoyances that are meant to be ignored, broken or violated--NOT followed. The idea that the rule of law is important and should be respected and upheld does not exist in the Mexican consciousness. Mexicans cynically think that people in the US talk about the importance of the rule of law and try to uphold it because they are naive.
5) Mexicans living illegally in the US have no compunction about using free medical services or educational services. In fact, they feel they have the right to complain about the free services they get and that not enough efforts, especially in education, are being made to serve them.
6) The usual attitude that I hear expressed by Mexicans living illegally in the US and using services not intended for them is that what they do is OK because anyway there are US citizens who don't use them. They rationalize that it is OK for them to use free medical or educational services intended for poor Americans because anyway Americans aren't enforcing their laws.
7) Many Mexicans intentionally have children here to obtain US citizenship for the child and then use the child as a "palanca" (springboard) to obtain even more services (WIC, welfare, low-income housing, medicare, etc.) with the ultimate goal of obtaining legal residency through the child.
8) Drinking, especially amongst the men, is epidemic. Alcoholism is not even recognized as a problem because it is the norm. Women regularly complain about the alcoholism, but put up with it. (aguantar)
9) Having low academic achievement is not considered a negative thing. Academic aspirations are weak. Illegal alien Mexicans rarely engage in reading. They spend their time watching telenovelas. I know the media periodically trots out an illegal alien Mexican who went to college and did well, but they are the exception, not the rule. Just check out the graduation statistics for them in APS. In my classes every year I have illegal alien Mexican students who drop out from a free high school education to get married and have babies. Most of these kids, both male and female, are about 15 or 16 years old.
10) Most of the couples have too many children. They have more children than they can care for or raise and it shows in the classroom.
11) In general they engage in lots of high-risk behaviors that endanger their health and safety and the health and safety of those around them. For example, alcoholism, DWI, smoking, poor dietary habits (too much sugar and saturated fats putting them at risk for diabetes and coronary disease), and domestic abuse.
This laundry list is just what I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure that if I really sat down to think about I'd think of more things.
Two last thoughts: 1) Chicanos who romanticize Mexico and Mexican culture and liberal, middle-class whites who defend illegal aliens are probably people who haven't really spent much time in close contact with illegal aliens from Mexico or haven't really lived in Mexico to see it as it really is. I mean let's face it: if Mexico was such a great place to live and the culture was so outstanding, 10% of it's population wouldn't be living illegally in the US. Would they? I doubt it. 2) When I ran a money transfer service on average we transferred 1.25 million dollars a year to Mexico (legally). This was money that was earned in NM but never benefited the people and the economy of NM. It just left the state and benefited the people and economy of Mexico. Ours was only one store. Multiply that amount by all the stores you see in Sante Fe and Albuquerque that do money transers primarily to Mexico and Latin America. (You can tell by the company names they advertise: SIGUE, CERVANTES, ORLANDI VALUTA, TEX-MEX, AFEX--these companies only tranfer to Latin America with some only transferring to Mexico.) That's a lot of money leaving the NM economy.
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After my first post I need to get back on point and answer the original question: How does illegal immigration affect NM?
Educational services: At the HS where I teach, 1/3 of the students are estimated to be here illegally. That means that NM residents are providing a free education for about 300 students at $7,000 a head. That comes to $2,100,000 dollars being spent at one school for the education of illegal aliens. Multiply this times the number of high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Los Lunas, Belen, Bernalillo, Rio Rancho, Las Cruces, Anthony, Mesilla, Portales, Clovis and other districts that provide free education to illegal aliens and you'll get some idea of how much money we are spending to educate people who should not even be here.
Also, take in to account that illegal aliens are given in-state tuition privileges to attend NM universities and that in some cases, as at CNM, their whole education is being subsidized by the taxpayer so that they pay only $40 for a course. Also, they are regularly offered free English as a Second Language Classes. They are even provided free textbooks for these classes. Visit CNM (Central NM Community College in Albuquerque) and check for yourself.
Please note that in addition to the money being spent in our schools to pay for education for illegal aliens, special classes are created for them. For example, English as a Second Language classes are provided for at least 5 years for a student. There are Spanish Language Arts classes that are taught entirely in Spanish so that illegal alien Mexican students don't lose their command of Spanish while they are (supposedly) learning English. There are many subject classes such as math, biology, geology, physics, world and US history that are taught in Spanish for the native Spanish speakers who are overwhelmingly illegal alien Mexican students.
I haven't even examined their effects on the school environment. At my school we had a special faculty meeting where the administrators explicitly and specifically told us that we did not have the right to ask any student who spoke Spanish in class to not speak Spanish--even in English classes! We were told that we did not have the right to inquire about any students immigration status. They have more rights than we do.
Mexican students regularly speak with foul language at our school and get away with it. They regularly cause major discipline problems and little happens. They have no compunction about expressing disrespect for the US and expressing allegiance and loyalty to MExico in a public manner and in class. Yet, as a teacher I can't tell them anything. Is allowing this kind of behavior a good idea?
I don't have statistics about health care or wages. I only have anecdotal impressions based on what the illegal aliens I know and have known have told me. But it does seem that they use emergency medical services quite a lot and they don't pay. In fact, I have known some that after they have recovered, leave the country for awhile to avoid paying and then come back to work later with a new SSN and new address. I've seen the checks they receive as payment for work and it sure seems to me that they lower wages for the rest of the workers in their field.
And of course let's not forget drunk driving. The media won't report it but if you check police records, the numbers of illegal alien drivers who are driving drunk in NM is high.
This kind of behavior leads to a general tolerance of corruption and disrespect for the rule of law. It is especially so when Marty Chavez (the mayor of Alb.) and his police chief regularly ignore violation of immigration law by illegal aliens. Without officially saying so, Marty Chavez has turned Alb. into a sanctuary city. Bill Richardson is about the same.
So these are some effects of illegal immigration on NM.
I need to make a correction to my second post from yesterday. I said 1/3 of the students at the HS where I teach are illegal aliens. That number should be 1/6 of the student population. Sorry for the mistake.
I need to make a correction to my second post from yesterday. I said 1/3 of the students at the HS where I teach are illegal aliens. That number should be 1/6 of the student population. Sorry for the mistake.
I need to make a correction to my second post from yesterday. I said 1/3 of the students at the HS where I teach are illegal aliens. That number should be 1/6 of the student population. Sorry for the mistake.
I was at the junior high graduation in Portales in May and I would say about 65% of the class was strait from Mexico
I was at the junior high graduation in Portales in May and I would say about 65% of the class was strait from Mexico
Are you sure they werent hispanic? Like with Spanish or Mexican last names?
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