People I met at the airport (2)

June 29

Ruth

During my flight to Tucson, I had the opportunity to interview a woman sitting next to me. She is middle aged, retired, and is visiting a family member in Tucson. She used to own several small businesses. I’ll call her Ruth.

I told Ruth I am coming to Arizona and am interested by the whole illegal migration situation. I asked her if she’d mind answering a few questions. She obliged.
Ruth has nothing against immigrants, she says, only illegal ones.
“They are dying to get in… literally. Thousands die, put their lives on the line. People stuffed into cars, semis. They come over here, get caught and sent back”.
Ruth emphasizes she sees this as a tragedy. “it is a very sad situation, they are desperate.”

She says she and other Americans though are very resentful because the illegals “steal jobs.”

She says the problem started when decades ago, people would let them work in their yards. The migrants got more and more work and would then take the money back to Mexico, where, according to Ruth, “they go across the border and live like kings”.
I asked her why she thinks they cross.
“There are no jobs in Mexico, there is poverty”
I asked her why that is.
“Because it’s a third world country. The government takes all of their money away”.
I told her that some people believe that NAFTA and other American and Canadian trade policies contribute to situations that make people in developing countries more poor.
She dismissed such a notion immediately.
“The US gives Mexico money, their leaders take it. It gives money to all countries. All of the leaders are corrupt, not just in Mexico. They don’t value life the same way we do. “
She said it is unfair to blame NAFTA or US policies for poverty in Mexico.
“We got everything, they got nothing. The US is helping Mexico, we give and they flock to our country to look for work. They should go get jobs in their country”
“A lot of US companies go to Mexico and get cheap labour. It is good for the Americans and it is good for the Mexicans.”

She then repeats that the migrants are just human beings and want to live like everyone else. It is a very sad situation.

Ruth’s relatives work in a hospital and have treated undocumented migrants who have no healthcare. She says they are obliged to. Private hospitals aren’t. Ruth heard a story from her daughter about a doctor in a private hospital who turned a patient away because she was a Mexican. A nurse came and informed him there was a severely sick woman who showed up and needed someone to have a look at her. He came out of his office and had one look at her.
“She has Mexican-itis” he said, and walked away. She later died. Since it was a private hospital he will face no consequences.

Ruth was shaken up by the story and believes he should have been sued. Even if she is against illegal immigration, she doesn’t think it’s right for people to die. She says if she saw illegal migrants in the desert, she would give them water and tell them to go back home. Then she would call the Border Patrol to make sure they actually did.

She acknowledges that most of the migrants are hard workers. “As a rule, they do a good job. They work for little or nothing”. However, as she points out, that means Americans cannot get jobs, because employers lower their wages. Resentment is directed at the Mexicans. Once in a while there are immigration raids where the “illegals” are deported, but the employers get a small fine.

She shares a shocking story that highlights the desperation and poverty of some migrants working in the US. A few years ago, a friend of hers in Columbus, Ohio, was building condos and among the workers he hired were some “illegals”. After a day of work and the workers went home, 15 Mexican migrant workers snuck back into an empty room that was recently constructed. They were homeless and had no place to stay, the money they were making was being sent back home and they didn’t have enough to pay for a place to sleep. They probably planned to spend the night at the site and be up and ready to work the next morning. Tragically, there was some kind of leak and the room filled with carbon monoxide gas. All fifteen of them died in their sleep.

She also acknowledged that there are some criminal elements coming across the border. Although most of the migrants are, in her words, desperate people coming to work, some also do carry drugs. Several years ago, a rancher close to the Mexican border was murdered, and the suspects were illegal migrants. The rancher was very well known and people were very shaken up by the news. Ruth also said that some migrants who come to the US are unable to get jobs and are either unwilling or unable to go back to Mexico, so they join gangs.

Ruth also shared she is a Republican, and thinks Barack Obama is doing a terrible job. She believes Bush was a better president because “Obama wants to give everything to the government and Bush wanted to give everything to the people”. Kind of like Robin Hood, I guess.
However, she is against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan “because they are a waste”. She then shares some interesting things she heard about Islam and Judaism and the middle east in general.
“We shouldn’t have gone into Iraq. It is full of Muslim Arabians, of Jewish descent. They don’t believe Jesus Christ was born. I don’t support Israel, we should get out of there. The Jews haven’t learned anything for thousands of years. The Jews and Muslims hate each other, that is never going to change. The Muslims believe in a god called Abba”.
The Catholics are next on the chopping block. As Ruth informs me, “the church encourages them to sin and to go to confession so they can sin again.”

Any elementary knowledge of Islam, Judaism, Catholic Christianity or the most basic understanding of the middle east is enough to show the facts are otherwise.

While I did not agree with everything Ruth said, it was great to hear her opinion. I don't know how representative it is of US public opinion, although she told me that in Tucson most people are very opposed to "illegals". She also offered me her cell number to call if I ever got into trouble or was in need- I met her on the flight and was a total stranger to her yet she made me this offer. There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that if I was in a bad situation she would try to lend a hand. I don’t know many other people who would do to someone they only knew for a few hours. She wished me a great trip, we shook hands and went our separate ways.