“If they (Hispanics) reside here, work here and have an opportunity to enjoy American freedom, then at the very least they should clean up their neighborhood,” said an Op Ed of The Trentonian written by a journalist named L.A. Parker.

Hispanics became upset, made it clear they were not the ones responsible for littering, but nevertheless dedicated a full Saturday to collect all the trash on the streets, and will continue doing so, but this endeavor had nothing to do with “freedom”, it was a simple matter of tidiness.

The actual issue goes beyond rubbish and the editorial inspired by it; it’s the common place and broken-record type mantra that everyone coming to this country is here in search of freedom.

Aren’t we confusing financial independence, affluence, with the actual freedom itself, which happens not to be exclusive of any individual country, or world power for that matter?

No doubt many constitutions of sovereign nations proclaim freedom and uphold it, it really is a matter of common sense, who wouldn’t include it, who wouldn’t embrace human rights, or the right to life itself…

Nobody denies that America hosts –as well as other countries- many refugees and individuals seeking asylum for many reasons: political, religious, of gender or fleeing government abuses.   But to claim this is the one country of freedom itself?

So we are to believe that there is no freedom in other countries, which is untrue.
There is freedom even in nations with problems such as drug trafficking, guerrillas, criminality, poverty, and, authoritarian governments.

What is lacking in many countries –a void not truly understood by American mainstream debating the undocumented “illegal” immigration issue- is jobs and purchase power.

Lets take some time to analyze that “freedom” enjoyed in the U.S. by approximately 400 immigrants detained at their work place in Iowa, the majority of whom were sentenced through marathon hearings in trailer house courtrooms and are now ready to be deported to Guatemala as soon as they serve their 5-month sentences in prison.

With nothing to lose, now they have no qualms to say it all.  One of them reported that he only had time to relentlessly work long hours and sleep, in addition to enduring verbal and physical abuse, unpaid overtime and underpaid wages in kind of their being undocumented, and the extremely dangerous and unhealthy work conditions.

Once they serve their time it is clear that they will be freed in Guatemala, yes enduring other problems such as poverty, street gangs, and lynching common in that Central American country.  Yet, they will be free.

The case of Iowa mirrors the situation of so many undocumented in America, whose freedom is completely restrained by fear of being deported by ICE, that no matter how well behaved just anything would trigger an arrest.

There is a case of an undocumented Mexican who only commutes to work and back to his home out of fear of being arrested just because of his mere appearance; he now struggles on whether he should appear before the Traffic Court due to a minor traffic incident and fix the problem, or to sink even deeper into a clandestine existence.

Others such as the Mexican assaulted and murdered by high school students in Pennsylvania, managed to have the freedom to maintain three children by dedicating himself to the back breaking harvest of blueberries, and whose life tragically ended in a town where he was constantly harassed for being Mexican.