View from Lodi, CA: Letter to American Schoolchildren
Recently, the Lodi News-Sentinel
published three letters from Lodi Middle School students
about U.S. immigration policy:
“Immigration laws unfair,”
“Immigration Laws need to be changed” and “Let
immigrants come to U.S. without documents.”
The letters were carbon copies of
each other. Each called for changing laws so that more
people can come to the United States, have better lives,
and do more jobs.
One thing about this incident can
be said with absolute certainty: these students did not
pop up one morning saying to themselves, “We must do
something about immigration. I am going to write a
letter to the editor demanding that the laws be
changed.”
And the principal of Lodi Middle
confirmed that 8th grade students had been
given an assignment to chose from a list of topics and
write an essay. They were encouraged to submit Letters
to the Editor. Students whose letters were published
would receive extra credit.
Among the choices were
homework (a News-Sentinel letter appeared on
that subject), lowering the driving age, on-campus use
of
cellular phones and, obviously, immigration.
The principal took pains to assure
me that the feelings expressed were those of the
students and that the teacher did not take a position.
The exercise was intended to build critical thinking
skills.
But the similarity of the letters
left me skeptical. Adding to my doubt is the teacher`s
failure to respond to a request for a phone call. But
the principal has given me her word, which I accept,
that neither the
school nor its teachers impose its philosophy on the
complex and emotional topic of immigration—or any other
controversial social issues.
Nevertheless, as the students move
into
high school and
college, they will rarely hear the argument to
limit immigration. So I`ll direct the rest of my
comments to them. If I`m lucky, maybe a few bold and
creative teachers will incorporate my column into a
classroom exercise of their own.
TO THE LODI MIDDLE SCHOOL
STUDENTS:
You have urged that immigration
laws be liberalized so that more people can come to the
U.S. and make better lives for themselves. More jobs,
you suggest, will be done if there are more people to do
them.
First, you should also know that
there is no job that Americans have not done in the past
or would not do today—especially in our depressed
economy.
Then, you must ask yourself why so
many people are compelled to leave Mexico and come to
the U.S.
Providing for Mexicans is the
responsibility of the Mexican government. For
decades, Mexico has
failed its citizens. Because of that repeated
failure, Mexicans have come to the U.S. seeking
opportunities that do not exist in their country.
In high school, you will learn
about the laws of
supply and demand. For every new worker who enters
America, an
employee is jeopardized. An unemployed person who
recently arrived in the U.S. will be delighted to, for
example, paint houses for $8.00 an hour even though the
going wage is $15.00. And
construction foremen will be anxious to hire them.
Working for a living may seem a
long way away from the 8th grade but one day
you will hold a job that you won`t want to lose to
someone willing to do it for
less money. Or maybe someone in your family is
employed today who needs that job to provide for you.
You would be very unhappy if the wage earner in your
family lost his job under those circumstances.
One of your
great heroes—Cesar Chavez—understood the laws supply
and demand as well as anyone who ever lived. What I am
now about to tell you about Chavez you will not
learn in school.
Chavez, a third generation
American, was a
rough, tough labor leader. When he headed the United
Farm Workers union, he was the
first person to call the Immigration and Naturalization
Service when he learned that a recently arrived
group of Mexicans “without papers,” as you have put it,
were hunting for jobs.
Chavez
knew that his responsibility was to protect the
interests of his members. So determined was Chavez
to keep cheap labor out that he offered UFW staffers to
the I.N.S. to help the agency patrol the
California/Mexico border.
I have lots more that I could tell you if only space
permitted. But ask your teachers. They can take it from
here.
Joe Guzzardi [email
him], an instructor in English
at the Lodi Adult School, has been writing a weekly
column since 1988. It currently appears in the
Lodi News-Sentinel.


