Immigration Reform has been a long and tedious problem that will not go away. This is not only applicable to our Spanish Speaking from south of the border but of many other peoples that have come here for the American dream.

To explain my feelings on this subject, I must tell you a little of my father's history as well as my own. My father was the publisher of “El Tiempo” a bilingual newspaper that was established in Raymondville around 1934 and finally closed down in 1969. Dad was a World War II Veteran who served honorably in the India- China-Burma Theater while in the Army Air Corps. I am also a Veteran who served in the Army National Guard for 6 years, 1955- 1961 and later in the Regular Army from 1972-1992. My Dad was born in Raymondville and so was I. My record of service was for 26 years.

As I was reading the Beeville newspaper this morning, the news there is about how we are going to deal with immigration and of all the undocumented people, I began thinking of all those racial problems that my Dad must have gone through simply because he was a Mexican-American. I also experienced racial problems while growing up in Raymondville. One thought comes to mind, while working as an admitting clerk at the Raymondville Memorial Hospital when a young Anglo boy came in because he had received a beating at the Corral Drive-In Theater and of course, a Constable came in to investigate the problem. The Constable asked the boy if it was a “Meskin” boy that did this and to which the reply was “Yes.” While I was listening, I felt embarrassed that he was asked this way.

As the years passed and I worked at the Texas Department of Corrections, one of my coworkers was talking about an Offender whom he referred to as “That Meskin.” I said, “Mr. XXXX, the word is Mexican if you are talking about that man,” to which he replied, “This one IS a Meskin.”

Historically, Mexican- Americans have been abused this way. Now racial profiling is just another weapon that has been and will be used in the quest for immigration reform especially now in Arizona. Texas is thinking about going that way also.

Jaime A Rodriguez Retired, SFC, US Army

Beeville, Texas

- - - Dear Mr. Rodriguez,

Thank you for your letter and thank you for your service to our country. I have been in Raymondville for 34 years and I knew your father when he ran a printing shop here, after he closed his Spanish language newspaper.

The comments you made about discrimination are certainly true. I was born and raised in Harlingen and I can remember a time when Mexican Americans were not allowed to use the city swimming pool.

Racism is a terrible thing and it is a blot on the history of Texas and many other states where it was used to try to keep black people from participation in the American dream.

But, that was then and this is now. Most of the teachers and administrators in Raymondville schools and other Rio Grande schools, are Mexican-Americans. And just about all of the elected officials in the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas are Hispanics.

It is time to look forward and to try and let go of the past. We now have a black president. Most Americans are not racist and are looking beyond the color of a person’s skin, in hiring, in voting and in personal associations.

Wanting our country’s borders enforced, however, is not a sign of discrimination, or of racism. Insisting that those who enter our country do so legally is a duty of our national government. The reason for the strong reaction in Arizona is that the federal government is not doing its duty.

If a person is in this country illegally, it does not matter how long he has been here---He is here illegally! No nation, including Mexico, will allow foreigners to move in without permission and the proper documentation.

The Editor