By Marisa Trevi?o, KERA 90.1 commentator
Dallas, TX –
Jobs with wages three times higher than can be found at home. That was all the incentive more than 200 people needed to risk their lives for jobs in a country where most people view foreign workers as invaders.
Does this scenario sound familiar?
It could easily describe immigrants crossing our southern border illegally, but this time the people looking for higher wages in a hostile country are U.S. citizens signing up with Halliburton to work in Iraq.
51 Halliburton employees have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since the start of the war, but those statistics didn't deter the people who attended a job fair Halliburton held last month in Fort Worth. In fact, according to news reports, 30 people signed on the spot the first day.
Halliburton said they routinely hire 300 to 500 people a week who have made the decision to leave their families behind for the chance to earn paychecks as high as $150,000.
But what kind of people are crazy enough to risk being threatened, shot at, kidnapped or beheaded for a few measly bucks?
The kind of people who are either desperate for a job that pays above minimum wage or desperate to be able to work at all to provide their families with a better quality of life.
In the eyes of Halliburton, these people are "brave hearts without medals, humanitarians without parades and heroes without statues."
But why isn't the same said for all the undocumented immigrants that go searching to provide their families with the same quality of life, too?
In both Iraq and the United States there are jobs to be filled. The only difference here is that the jobs the undocumented receive are the leftovers deemed too low-paying, menial or sweaty for any self-respecting American citizen to do.
Yet, the undocumented does them with no complaints.
What do they receive?
Insults and discrimination. They're taken advantage of and made the scapegoats of a poor economy. On top of that, once they've survived the life-threatening journey to get here and have put their faith into strangers whom they can only pray will treat them fairly and decently. They can't go home to their families without risking their lives all over again just to cross the border.
It is common knowledge that the majority of people who come in search of work want to come only long enough to earn enough money for their families. They want to go home, but they also want to be able to live day-to-day without going hungry or just merely existing.
They may not be going to Iraq, but with all the obstacles undocumented immigrants must overcome and endure, their journey is through a different kind of war zone.
One that shows no mercy for those fighting for a life worth living.
Marisa Trevino is a writer from Rowlett. If you have opinions or rebuttals about this commentary, call (214) 740-9338 or email us.