Immigration Protesters Cause Harm

Few Grateful Dead fans think of Jerry Garcia as Hispanic. Ditto fans of Cameron Diaz, Raquel Welch, and other actors such as Martin Sheen et fils who've established careers that de-emphasize any ethnic affiliation. Not so lucky are those with classical Latino features in ordinary jobs who are increasingly being regarded as noncredentialed whether they are or not.

While riding the no. 4 subway line uptown last week, a trio of mariachi players entered the car, two with guitars and one with an accordion. They started singing a lovely Mexican song in the center of the car, but the passengers were stonefaced and ignored the passing of the hat. Inside the train stations, it's hard to find those once-familiar South American flute players anymore.

While it's illegal to beg on the subway cars, it doesn't stop the black acappella singers who always manage to succeed with a crowd-pleasing oldie. Wearing a sombrero, however, is not a guaranteed coin-gatherer. Two years ago, riders would have been charmed by the Spanish musical respite in the dreary subway, but no longer.

Whatever sympathy one might have had for illegal aliens who have risked life and limb to get to a country where the streets are lined with gold has been effectively annihilated by protesters who claim those streets as their own. But most native-born and legalized Hispanics are far removed from the left-wing Marxists who wave Mexican flags at pro-immigration demonstrations. In fact, they've formed their own organization, You Don't Speak for Me (dontspeakforme.org).

Maybe it's different here in New York, but I just can't imagine local illegal aliens taking time off from their jobs at the hotels, restaurants, construction sites, and private homes to march in a demonstration waving mass-produced anti-American signs. Some political leaders are determined to grant legality to those living in the shadows, but not one of the shadow-dwellers I know personally has asked for that exposure.

When Bill Perkins was a member of the City Council, he introduced legislation for non-citizen voting rights because, he claimed, those workers pay taxes. This lack of respect for the privilege of citizenship is typical of Democrats who are forever seeking new voters from those eager to bypass the difficult process of naturalization.

In 1996, the Clinton administration managed to speed a million new citizens through the naturalization process in time for them to vote for President Clinton's re-election. Even though damning memos to Vice President Gore from Doug Farbrother of the National Performance Review detail how the citizenship process was expedited as requested by the president, no one seems to care. The newly naturalized citizens included more than 75,000 who had arrest records and another 61,000 who were given citizenship without submitting fingerprints. I wonder if any of these fine new citizens were among those rioting in Los Angeles.

Now that a grassroots project has halted the ill-conceived new immigration legislation, it's time for political leaders to get back to the business of securing this nation from those who want to divide it. Listen to the words of a Republican president and former New York State governor, Theodore Roosevelt, who spoke at a luncheon given by Vincent Astor's wife in 1916: "Let us say to the immigrant not that we hope he will learn English, but that he has got to learn it. Let the immigrant who does not learn it go back. He has got to consider the interest of the United States or he should not stay here. He must be made to see that his opportunities in this country depend upon his knowing English and observing American standards."

This is good advice for Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein, who are moving ahead with their ill-conceived plan for the Khalil Gibran International Academy. I'm still getting hammered and accused of being a bigot for a column I wrote calling it a monstrosity. Apparently, the liberal readers of the New York Times, which quoted out of context my tongue-in-cheek call to "break out the torches," have no sense of the absurd. Their ability to spew the vilest mail possible, however, goes beyond the pale.

I stand by my opposition to having the New York City taxpayer pay for an unnecessary multicultural project — an Arabic-language school — that would be better served with private funds that are readily available.

Unlike Jerry Garcia and the others I mentioned before, I'm readily recognized as Hispanic but I speak perfect English because I am an American and proud of it. Those who are just passing through shouldn't expect the same privileges.