Fighting myths about the undocumented

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- They send our dollars back home. While it is true that immigrants remit billions of dollars a year to their countries of origin, this is one of the most effective forms of direct foreign investment. Additionally, undocumented individuals and their families spend considerable consumer dollars.

My father (God rest his soul) entered the U.S. in the early 1920s. My Tea Party-bending sister likes to think he arrived legally. I’m not so positive. So when I think of the possibility of SB 1070 going into effect, I imagine how my father would have been treated and what would have followed if this inhospitable and unjust law had been in place when he arrived in Louisiana – either documented or undocumented – to work, marry and raise a family in this land of the free. Then I think of the millions who have entered this country from the far corners of the world, and all of their contributions, and I wonder what kind of country we are allowing ourselves to become.

Diane Lopez Hughes is a community activist and Pax Christi Springfield representative on the Faith Coalition for the Common Good board. Join FCCG on Aug. 11 for a vigil to the Chicago-area Broadview Immigration Detention Center. For more information, 626-1004.