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 News from Around the Americas | January 2008 
'Yes, I am Here Illegally, but We Work the Hardest'
 Ewen MacAskill & Dan Glaister - Guardian Unlimited
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 |  | The Latino vote is a trump card. So much emphasis is being placed on the black vote but the Latino vote is the crucial vote for the party, the nomination and the election.
- Earl Ofari Hutchinson |  | | | |
The immigration controversy could determine the outcome of the Republican primary in South Carolina - and November's presidential election.
Ignacio, a Mexican teenager standing outside a desolate and rundown trailer home not far from the South Carolina state capital of Columbia, is lonely and a little scared. He misses his family back in Jalisco, and twice in recent months people have come through his trailer park waving guns and shooting.
The 19-year old, who preferred not to provide his surname, walked over the border in 2005 in search of a livelihood. He was caught and deported on his first attempt but a day later he tried again and was successful.
He now works in the construction industry, earning $400(pounds 200) for a six-day week, and shares the small trailer with four other single Mexicans - one of hundreds such homes lining the bleak Old Peculiar Road, about 15 miles from Columbia.
"It is sad because we have no family. We work from 7am until the sun goes down. We only see each other when we are getting ready for bed," he said.
Ignacio and his illegal immigrants, numbering between 12 and 20million, have become the hot issue of the 2008 presidential campaign.
The influx of Latinos into the US in the last decade, the biggest wave of immigration since the 19th century, has aroused emotions that range from outright racism to the righteous anger of liberal activists who see in their plight a cause similar to the 1960s civil rights movement.
The controversy could determine the outcome of the Republican primary in South Carolina on Saturday. It will also have an impact on the contests that follow and eventually in November's presidential election.
Ignacio is aware of the calls by Republican candidates that he and other illegal immigrants should be immediately arrested and sent home, but sees a contradiction in US attitudes. "Yes, I am here illegally. But we work the hardest. We are doing the jobs Americans will not do. We are building their homes, washing their dishes. We do all their work and they do not like us," he said.
While much of the resentment towards illegal immigrants comes from a white community in a state with a reputation for racism, it comes too from the African-American community, amid accusations that the Latinos are taking their jobs. Ignacio said the trailer park has twice been shot up in recent months by African-Americans, though with no injuries other than bullet through a hand.
While the states near the Mexican border have long been accustomed to "illegals" - or undocumented workers, as sympathisers prefer to call them - what is new is their arrival in large numbers in states that had previously seen little immigration.
South Carolina has one of the fastest-growing Latino populations in the country. The number of illegal immigrants in the state is estimated at between 150,000 and 400,000 in a state with a total population of 4.3 million.
The impact is felt strongest in small rural communities whose families have often lived in the same place since the 18th century and who have witnessed no previous immigration. They now suddenly find in their communities grocery shops and restaurants with names such as Guadalajara and where the staff speak only Spanish, and see large numbers of illegal immigrants in the local schools or queues for the clinic.
The South Carolina state legislature has about 40 bills pending proposing punitive actions against such immigrants in an attempt to force them to move to another state or out of the US. A committee this week discussed a draconian bill that will make it a criminal act to help illegal immigrants, with violations carrying a penalty of 5 or more years in jail.
Among those speaking in favour were Roan Garcia-Quintana, a US citizen who is originally from Cuba and director of Americans Have Had Enough Coalition. "We are being overrun," he said. "They have grown exponentially. You see them everywhere."
He described the trailer parks as like being in a Third World country: "They practise Voodoo Christianity. You see animal heads on the top of trailers. You have crime. You have cocaine."
He criticized Republican candidate John McCain for backing bipartisan reform that would have offered immigrants such as Ignacio a route to legality.
McCain is the most liberal of the Republicans on immigration - and that will cost him votes. Other candidates have adopted increasingly anti-illegal immigrant rhetoric, particularly Mike Huckabee, in spite of being relatively benign on the issue while governor of Arkansas.
The issue is running heavily in Nevada, which holds its caucuses on Saturday, but for a different reason.
Unlike the migrant Latino populations in the east and middle of the country who have no votes, the Latinos in the western states are more established, with citizenship and votes.
Whereas Republican candidates have alienated some of their Latino supporters with their tough talk on immigration, the Democrats have been working hard to woo what could be a crucial voting block.
Latinos represent around a quarter of the eligible voters in Nevada, and some 13% of registered voters.
"The Latino vote is a trump card," said Los Angeles-based commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson, author of the forthcoming The Ethnic Presidency. "So much emphasis is being placed on the black vote but the Latino vote is the crucial vote for the party, the nomination and the election."
The Democratic candidates, unlike the Republicans, oppose deporting illegal immigrants, arguing this is economically not feasible nor is it humane.
Back in South Carolina, Ignacio is planning to return to Mexico but many others intend staying in the country until they are granted the right to remain or are thrown out. The chances are they will become a permanent presence, if only because of new births.
Conchita Cruz, who works for one of the groups trying to help the immigrants, the Coalition of New South Carolinians, said she looked forward to seeing the state in about 20 years time. "It will be different. Kids who are born of undocumented parents will be citizens and able to vote," she said. |
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