The immigration issue burst into state politics in 1994 when unpopular Republican Gov. Pete Wilson used Proposition 187, a measure to deny public services to undocumented residents, to save his reelection.
Although progressives\’ cause-of-the-month is criticizing Israel\’s treatment of Palestinians, it has been endemic in the Latino left for years.
The new U.S. census figures have generated banner headlines this month, though no one seems to have a clue what those numbers portend. The big news, of course, is that America\’s Latino population has ballooned almost 60 percent in the past decade, surpassing 35 million. More than 43 percent of Californians younger than 18 are now Hispanic, compared with about 35 percent a decade ago. In both the city and county of Los Angeles, Latinos have replaced whites as the largest ethnic group.
There are a thousand stories in the naked city of Los Angeles, but when it comes to nannies, there are at least a million – nannies who have a free reign of the household, nannies who make good salaries, nannies who get help from their employers to buy cars or put a down payment on a house. But there are the other stories as well – the nanny who works long hours for little pay, with no holidays, no sick days, no breaks. \”I knew when I was here without papers, I didn\’t deserve to be here,\” says nanny Carmen Davis, \”but still, that didn\’t mean I deserved to be treated without respect.\”
Jews and Latino\’s share many things, Xavier Becerra, the Congressman from L.A.\’s 30th district, who just returned from an AIPAC-sponsored trip to Israel, reminds us. But we live apart, a great geographic divide separating us, almost as though we were citizens of different countries.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.