I’ve never cared whether hard-working Latino workers in California had documentation or not. Didn’t bother me in the least and still doesn’t. All I knew, from working for decades in the wine and restaurant industries, was that they were some of the most diligent, honest, happy and lovely people I’d ever met.
I met Mexican field and winery workers by the thousands in my days covering the wine industry from Temecula and Santa Barbara up through the Central Coast and on into Napa, Sonoma and points north and eastward to the Sierra Foothills. I knew their employers, too, usually white men, and they often told me how much they loved and respected their employees and how business would have been impossible without them.
My respect and affection for these people increased every time. Sure, I knew—everybody in the wine and restaurant industries knew--that a good many of the Mexicans (and other Central Americans) were probably here illegally. But, like I said, I didn’t give a damn. Whenever somebody complained about it, I’d think, “You’re a complete idiot. Life as we know it in California would collapse without these fine people.” And I would rather have had these Mexicans for my neighbors than some of the White trash that puts American flags on their pickups.
For years, it seemed like we were all playing a game of don’t ask, don’t tell. But then you-know-who sleazed into the presidency, and suddenly, it was war on Mexicans. I can’t tell you how it pains me to see so many decent, law-abiding men and women of Brown skin being treated so harshly.
I’ll tell you one thing: this deportation crap has nothing to do with crime. It has everything to do with the White nationalist culture that infects most of the MAGA base. They don’t like foreigners and don’t want them in this country, and now, since Trump, they’re not afraid to say so. They’re not smart enough to figure out that the lettuce, onions and tomatoes they pile on their Big Macs were all harvested, and the homes they may be living in built, by the very people they’re trying to kick out. If it was just about crime, we already have plenty of laws against murder, theft, trafficking, drugs, gangs and so on. Let’s just enforce those laws, and we can deal with the crime, whether committed by undocumented people or full citizens. But for God’s sake, stop this xenophobic war on Mexicans!
But it’s not just about crime. This is the thing about so many MAGAs: they’re really racists. And for all their talk about “Christianity” that’s a bunch of hooey. They’re about as “Christian” as the Ayatollah. They know it, you know it, I know it. Let’s call it out for what it is: rank hypocrisy.
There are things about conservatism I agree with, especially support for the cops, and the stupid destructiveness of the woke obsession with race. But when it comes to MAGA and Trump, what they’re doing to our Mexican brothers and sisters is truly despicable. That’s why I’m ready to support Oakland’s status as a sanctuary city, and honored to stick up for our hard-working Mexican and Central American neighbors. We need to demand our electeds create a pathway to citizenship for these people, instead of creeping into Home Depots and busting them.
By the way, the MAGAs talk about getting rid of all the Mexicans and returning “American” jobs to the agricultural fields. Memo to MAGAts: American citizens don’t want those back-breaking jobs. Here’s my proposal: let’s make every MAGA, including Trump’s nepo sons, work for one year in the Salinas Valley picking Brussels sprouts and kale. When they collapse from heat stroke, they may learn a thing or two about the noble work that immigrants do.
Steve Heimoff