Professor Joseph Rodriguez teaches US Latino History, US Urban history, and urban studies.
He invited the student journalism in and said he had time to speak with me on the issues of immigration. Although he was modest in his delivery of his ideas, it was clear he knew a lot about immigration and how it was affecting people.
He began by talking about the strained relationship between the federal government and local authorities. According to Rodriguez, local authorities are reluctant to cooperate with I.C.E agents because the authorities are worried unauthorized immigrants who need emergency attention from the police, will be too afraid to call 911 when they really need too.
Are unauthorized immigrants afraid to call the police? Rodriguez noted that, “Previous county sheriff David Clarke was all gung ho (referring to helping ICE) but our current sheriff has said he will not participate in with ICE agents.”
He also debunked the myth that all undocumented immigrants are criminals and violent, bringing up the point that many of them don’t want to interactions with the police out of fear of deportation. “A lot of stats show undocumented immigrants are law abiding for obvious reasons, they don’t want contact with the police.”
Rodriguez also said that we have many immigrants from other countries besides Mexico, but the issue is very racialized. According to him, Canadians over stay their visas all the time but can blend in more.
On the state of Wisconsin, Rodriguez said that the state population growth is very slow here, and that Milwaukee is one of the slowest growing cities in the country. Immigrants who live in rural areas thus “have a huge economic impact, they pay taxes, buy cars, and work decent jobs.” “Wisconsin is heavily dependent on immigration labor.” “People see immigrants as low wage workers, but a lot of them are artists, craftsman, they’re not just low-income workers.”The professor does believe most people are sympathetic to the issues of illegal immigration.
On DACA impacting college students, he said, “Time is running out now for a lot of these students, legality of it is up in the air.”
He also bought up the fact that many immigrants come here for a few years, then leave for a few years, before coming back again. Referring to President Donald Trump’s idea to build a wall on the southern border, he says, “If people think that they cannot get back into the United States then there not going to leave; it’s a negative reverse impact.”
He is also against deportation which leads to separation of families. “If you divide families, maybe their father is deported, so now who’s going to take care of the family?”
He then bought up the argument that the only way to discourage illegal immigration is to increase our legal immigration (he cited how hard it was to get into America legally).