Nation of Immigrants

Surprise, Arizonian Minutemen, the immigration problem is a nationwide issue. Despite the "success" of the Minutemen project, it is not a sustainable solution to the influx of immigrants in US communities across the culture.

They've come for plentiful jobs in construction and landscaping in neighboring and wealthy Fairfield County. Danbury is also a better place for immigrants to raise their families than, say, the Lower East Side of New York. And that's why they come, says Wilson Hernandez, past president of the Ecuadorian Civic Center. "They want to come here so they can make a living, just to provide some bread to keep their families stable," he says.

But for some longtime residents, like Lydia Yaglenski, a mother who runs a body-shop business, they are lawbreakers, plain and simple. She contends that the presence of the undocumented workers has overburdened the local schools with a large number of children who can't speak English.

"It's not only the education," she adds. "We have to have more police. These people park their cars everywhere; a landlord buys a house, two people come to rent it, and before you know it, there are 20 living there."

Such frustrations came to a head at a meeting last month of the newly formed Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control. More than 150 people turned out to voice concerns about the impact that undocumented workers are having on the community - everything from the large volleyball games some immigrants play in their backyards to the decrease in local wages.

"The illegals have a distinct advantage economically over legals: They displace workers who would otherwise have those jobs," says Paul Streitz, cofounder of Connecticut Citizens. "They accept wages that are so low that it eventually gets to the point that contractors and others can't but use illegals. Otherwise, they can't effectively compete for business."

Undoubtedly, this massive wave of immigrants is very costly to American communities in many ways; but also a very beneficial experience. There's a zenophobic atmosphere to all of this: the fear of the invasion of the other without consideration of the effects of that influx. Of course, many of these problems of cost can be dealt with with certain registrations and taxes- the health care, security, and education of these groups of immigrants can essentially begin to pay for themselves. Of course, it's somebody else's job to figure out how to do that...