News and views from the award-winning author of the novels The Skinny Years, America Libre, House Divided and Pancho Land

Sunday, October 3, 2010

“We’re just getting too many Hispanic people in town”

“We’re just getting too many Hispanic people in town.” That's why Gerry Boller, 78, who works at the counter at New Beginnings Thrift Store in Crete, Nebraska (population 6000) feels his state needs an immigration law like Arizona's. “It seems like they come in and take over,” Boller told the New York Times


Forget that Nebraska's unemployment rate is 4.6% or that the state has long sought to grow its population. To Mr. Boller and many others like him, Hispanics are not welcome. 


Does everyone who supports Arizona's SB 1070 feel the same? I doubt it. All the same, it's difficult to believe that illegal immigration is the sole reason for the law's support among many -- especially when polls show most who support the law admit it will make racial profiling likely. 


And that should shame every American.


Raul Ramos y Sanchez