Hispanic Citizen Boom contributes to ANTI´s Immigration Fears

One of the reasons ANTIs are nervous is the Hispanic citizen population boom in our country. Last week the Census Bureau reported Hispanics are the nation's largest minority with 44M citizens. They also said Hispanics account for almost half the growth of the US population. This rate of growth is expected to continue over the next several decades as the "white" population, with the aging Boomers, will be much less.

I post frequently on an ANTI-PRO discussion board. One of the members shared her concern about this when we were discussing a Ruben Navarette article titled: Immigration Anxiety is cultural. http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/21/navarrette/index.html

The ANTIs wrote they fear Hispanic citizens will not assimilate and they will continue to speak Spanish.

Here is my response:
We have 44M Hispanic citizens in this country, all citizens. That is what the census bureau is reporting and that is the topic of Ruben´s column. We have every right to be here as does every other citizen in this great country of ours. This is not about illegal immigration although some of the ANTIs try to bring this into the equation. Thank you Marjorie, for telling us the truth. It is about the Citizens who are Hispanic, particularly those of us who have ancestors who were from Mexico.

As far back as I can remember, and much before that, Anglos have called us Mexican or Mexican Americans. When I was younger, I often questioned this, "Mommy, why can´t we be Americans too?" Growing up, people always asked me, "What are you?" I would say "American." But they would keep asking "what are you? what are you?" They would continue until I finally said "Mexican or Mexican American."

You cannot deny racism exists in this country. Thank Heavens for the Civil Rights movement. Otherwise we still could not eat in the same restaurants, stay at the same hotels, drink from the same water fountains or use the same restrooms, as my Father suffered. We didn´t separate ourselves. The Anglos separated us out and wanted us to serve as indentured servants. That is why you see so many Mexican Americans in the service industry, working in Hotels, Restaurants, and landscaping, serving the man. When the majority of us were serving you, you didn´t care if we spoke Spanish, as long as we stayed subservient. This country condoned this separatism from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo until the new millenium.

The census bureau has been saying for decades the rate of Hispanic citizens was growing and by the new millenium, we would be the largest minority. Tanton, the ANTI godfather (Tanton´s famous quote: Hispanics are uneducatable) has been preaching this since the 60´s. That´s why he formed FAIR, NumbersUSA and his other groups, to stop this growth. His groups initially rallied to stop the Hispanic citizen growth. His groups gained momentum when the Immigration bureau told us the rate of illegal immigrants was at the 11M level. His groups raised their rallying cry after the May Marches of 2006. Tanton´s groups have jumped on the illegal immigration issue and captured the attention of the American Public as a backdoor way of getting more members to support their cause.

I believe the issue to resolve IS NOT how to stop the rate of Hispanic citizens in this country. The issue IS, how do WE help all of our citizens obtain Education, Careers and Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. We need to stop checking those census ethnicity boxes as we all become more multi cultural and just plain Americans.