Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
52
Key to building better life is staying in America to work
If you want to know why Juan Vazquez came to the United States from central Mexico and keeps moving around the nation looking for work, he knows enough English to summarize it:
''The reason we are here is to work.''
A roofer, Vazquez has worked off and on in the United States for eight years.
He's traveled from North Dakota to North Carolina and from Texas to Tennessee, sometimes with family members, to get work.
''We're working hard --12, 14 hours a d
y. We don't care. We want to stay here.''
Work that earns him $100 in Nashville would earn him the equivalent of just 10 U.S. dollars in his native country, he said. And those earnin
gs
ouldn't go very far, even in a poor region.
In Mexico, he said, 'money is nothing.''
His brother, who works with him, has saved enough to try to buy a house here.
Vazquez says he wants to bring his daughter into the country so she can go to better schools, although that's easier said than done.
President Bush's proposal to grant temporary visas to undocumented immigrants who are working might mean he could stay for up to six years legally. For now, though, the desire to work and get ahead overrides any concerns about getting deported.
He said he'd been sent back to Mexico a couple of times already but had returned to this country to work.
When told he could face jail time, he said: ''I pre
fer to live here two to three years in jail than Mexico.''
****************
Well, SeÃԚ±or Juan Vazquez I'll see what I can do to make your dream of living in an Ameri
can
jail
come true
.
T.N.B.
Key to building better life is staying in America to work
If you want to know why Juan Vazquez came to the United States from central Mexico and keeps moving around the nation looking for work, he knows enough English to summarize it:
''The reason we are here is to work.''
A roofer, Vazquez has worked off and on in the United States for eight years.
He's traveled from North Dakota to North Carolina and from Texas to Tennessee, sometimes with family members, to get work.
''We're working hard --12, 14 hours a d
y. We don't care. We want to stay here.''
Work that earns him $100 in Nashville would earn him the equivalent of just 10 U.S. dollars in his native country, he said. And those earnin
gs
ouldn't go very far, even in a poor region.
In Mexico, he said, 'money is nothing.''
His brother, who works with him, has saved enough to try to buy a house here.
Vazquez says he wants to bring his daughter into the country so she can go to better schools, although that's easier said than done.
President Bush's proposal to grant temporary visas to undocumented immigrants who are working might mean he could stay for up to six years legally. For now, though, the desire to work and get ahead overrides any concerns about getting deported.
He said he'd been sent back to Mexico a couple of times already but had returned to this country to work.
When told he could face jail time, he said: ''I pre
fer to live here two to three years in jail than Mexico.''
****************
Well, SeÃԚ±or Juan Vazquez I'll see what I can do to make your dream of living in an Ameri
can
jail
come true
.
T.N.B.