-Caveat Lector- This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which follows. To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?23631 Saturday, July 14, 2001 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Coming home? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Ruben Navarrette, Jr. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- � 2001 Dallas Morning News Mexican immigrants are not just for the border states anymore. They're in the heartland, toiling in Michigan auto plants and Wisconsin dairies and Iowa slaughterhouses. And now, their leader is going in after them. In the coming days, Mexican President Vicente Fox travels to the American Middle West with stops in Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee. Unlike other world leaders who visit the United States looking for aid or investment capital, Fox is coming to remind Americans of the aid that they receive, every day, from easy access to the human capital of millions of Mexican laborers. Fox is asking for something in return � some form of legal status for the laborers. El presidente would dearly love to have the support of average Americans for his proposal that the United States grant some form of "regularization" (read: amnesty) to the estimated 4 million to 5 million undocumented immigrants now living in the United States. So Fox intends to use his "No Borders Tour" to make the case that Mexican immigrants, even those who are here illegally, are far less trouble than they are worth. That could be a tough sell. The former Coca-Cola executive knows how to make a pitch. But he'll still need more than slick marketing to convince anxious Americans that the cities and towns changing before their eyes are changing for the better. Fox needn't worry about overcoming the old saw about how immigrants take American jobs � a recent Gallup poll showed three-fourths of Americans conceding that immigrants take jobs that they don't want. Nor need he contend with what has been, in recent years, a hostile political environment created by American politicians who have raised their poll numbers by raising people's blood pressure. Less than a decade ago, a California governor got political mileage by blaming immigrants for his state's financial woes. Now, President Bush is praising the new arrivals and promising to speed up the process for making them U.S. citizens. This week, at an appearance at Ellis Island, Bush said immigrants should be greeted with "openness and courtesy," and he committed the Immigration and Naturalization Service to processing citizenship applications within six months. But wait. Not all of America is celebrating "Immigrant Appreciation Week." Despite the United States being known as a nation of immigrants, old fears from previous waves of immigration linger � that new immigrants, in this case Latinos, are not doing enough to perpetuate the myth of the melting pot. By preserving familiar customs in an unfamiliar place, as some immigrant bashers claim, Latinos are insulting their host country by demanding that it adapt to suit them rather than the other way around. Why, before you know it, their children will be running for elective office, sharing fond stories of immigrant fathers and celebrating their own holidays with colorful parades down Fifth Avenue. The Fox administration, which has a firm grasp on American politics, must know that achieving "regularization" will be difficult. Americans may ask an obvious question: If Mexico really does consider its runaway immigrants living in the United States such a great national resource, then why is it so eager to part with them by securing an amnesty that encourages them to never go home? Mexican leaders insist that they do want Mexicans who are thinking of leaving the country to stay, and those who have already left to return. To prove it, the Fox government this week began running public service announcements that warn would-be migrants of the perils � from deadly smugglers to desert dehydration � in crossing the border. The truth in the advertising is that Mexico has no real interest in would-be migrants heeding its warnings, given the estimated $10 billion that Mexican immigrants in the United States send home annually. While those contradictions don't deter Fox from his sales pitch, they do mean that he'll have to be more crafty in making it. And so, he is first targeting Mexican-Americans who, lacking a leader of their own, may be eager to lay claim to the exciting and charismatic Mexican president. His tour of the Midwest includes an address next Tuesday to the annual conference of the Latino advocacy organization, the National Council of La Raza. There, Fox will continue his courtship of Mexican-Americans � a group that has, for generations, been tormented by an estrangement from its ancestral homeland � by offering a chance at reconciliation. What Fox stands ready to offer the rest of America � for all that he is asking of it � is still not nearly so clear. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ruben Navarrette, Jr., a frequent spokesman and commentator on Latino issues, is an editorial board member of the Dallas Morning News and the author of "A Darker Shade of Crimson: Odyssey of a Harvard Chicano." http://wnd.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=23631 <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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