THE HISPANIC AND LATINO IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

                                 

The Hispanics and Latinos Are the Labour Force That Makes America Run

Lately, Latin American immigrants in the United States are facing heightened challenges. Many immigrants have said that recent enforcement drives have made them feel less safe in their own communities, and that they worry a family member or close friend could be deported. This climate has been linked to broader pressures. An advocacy briefing published in March 2026 by the American Friends Service Committee and partners, citing Department of Homeland Security figures, estimated that more than two million foreign nationals had left the US as of 27 October 2025, including approximately 527,000 through enforced removal and 1.6 million through what it described as self-deportation. That estimate has not been published as an official DHS total and should be read as an NGO compilation, not a government statistic. Policy shifts, including changes to humanitarian parole, Temporary Protected Status and eligibility for Affordable Care Act coverage under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, have compounded insecurity.

                                        

The Hispanics or Latinos are the labour force of the United States. You see them everywhere. In shops, on public transport, on construction sites, on farms, in hotels, in warehouses, in kitchens and on the streets delivering food in every weather. They are the people who keep America running. They are the quiet engine behind the noise of the American economy. They are the hands that lift, the hands that carry, the hands that clean, the hands that cook and the hands that build.

Remove them and watch how major sectors that make the United States function are crippled. Shelves go thin because there are fewer people to stack them and to transport goods. Buildings rise more slowly because there are fewer people to lay bricks, to carry cement, to bend steel and to pour concrete. Crops rot in fields because there are fewer people to pick them. Restaurants close early because kitchens have no cooks and no dishwashers. Delivery applications falter because there are fewer riders to move through the city. Offices remain uncleaned. Homes remain unbuilt. The country that calls itself an engine of the world would struggle to keep its own engine running without their hands.

They are the backbone of the food industry in America. They cook in kitchens, they wash dishes till late at night, they serve tables, they prepare meat, they chop vegetables, they clean floors and they deliver food on bicycles and motorbikes through rain and snow and scorching heat. Walk into any restaurant from New York to California, from Texas to Florida, and you will find Latinos behind the heat of the grill. They are in fast food chains and in five star hotels, in taco trucks and in diners that never close. They work long hours without complaint, weekends and nights and holidays while others rest, often without insurance and without job security. Without them, America does not eat out in the way it has become accustomed to.

They are drivers, masons, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, welders, painters, roofers, gardeners, dog walkers, housekeepers and security guards. Many times I saw them dangling from a high rise while painting or cleaning the outer walls with only a rope to hold them. I saw them swaying in the wind many floors above the street, washing glass that others would not dare to touch. They build the skyline of America while remaining invisible in the story of America.

They brought food varieties that became part of American life. Today American food is unthinkable without Hispanic food. Tacos, burritos, enchiladas, tamales, quesadillas, guacamole and salsa are no longer foreign foods. They are American foods. In 1992, sales of salsa surpassed those of ketchup in dollar value, a clear signal of its popularity. That does not mean Americans eat more salsa by volume. Americans still buy more ketchup by weight, about ten billion ounces a year, because a jar of salsa costs more than a bottle of ketchup. But the dollar figure tells the story of cultural transformation. Avocados, chillies, coriander, limes, black beans, corn tortillas and plantains have entered every supermarket. The tortilla has become as American as sliced bread.

They may be from Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Panama, Bolivia, Uruguay or any country once a Spanish colony. That is why they speak Spanish. That is why they are called Hispanic because of their Spanish linguistic heritage and Latino because of their geographical origin in Latin America. In truth many are both. On official forms you see the combined term Hispanic Latino because language and geography have made them one community in the United States. They are united by language, by history, by faith and by a shared spirit of work.

They are an honest, religious and no nonsense people. They believe in early mornings, hard work, God and keeping their word. They believe that labour has dignity. They do not ask for handouts. They ask only for a fair chance to work and to live with dignity and to be treated with respect. Their churches are full on Sundays. Their homes are full of children, grandparents, uncles and aunts and respect for elders.

Yet many are exploited precisely because they do not have proper stay permission. They are paid less than promised. They are denied overtime, safety equipment, medical benefits and rest. Their vulnerability is used against them by employers who know they cannot complain. Their labour creates enormous profit for others while they themselves live in crowded rooms and save every dollar to send home.

At their heart they love family life, music and their indigenous culture. Family comes first, always. Their music, dance, food and festivals are not hobbies. They are memory. They carry centuries of indigenous and mestizo heritage, the traditions of Aztec, Maya, Inca and many other native peoples mixed with Spanish history.

America was built by immigrants. This is the fundamental truth that must be spoken without fear. Before any immigrant came, this land belonged to the native peoples. They had their own nations, governments, laws, languages and religions. Those native peoples were driven out. Their lands were captured by force and by fraud and by false promises. Their treaties were broken again and again. Their villages were burnt, their children were taken to boarding schools far from home where their hair was cut and their language was forbidden. Their spiritual practices were banned by law. The Trail of Tears where thousands died in forced marches, the massacres at Wounded Knee and Sand Creek, the deliberate destruction of food sources, these are not footnotes. They are the foundation upon which immigrant America was built.

After that destruction, everyone else who came was an immigrant. Some came from England and Spain and France. Some came from Germany and Ireland and Italy and Poland. Some came from Africa in chains and built the wealth of the south with unpaid labour. Some came from China and Japan and Korea. Some came from India and the Philippines and Vietnam. Only the timeline is different. No one except the natives can claim this land as originally theirs.

Therefore the pulling out of Latinos and Hispanics simply because they have no papers carries less logic and less justice. You cannot build a nation with immigrant hands and then declare those hands illegal. You cannot celebrate Ellis Island and the Mayflower while punishing those who cross the Rio Grande with the same dream of work and freedom.

The law must be respected but the law must also be humane and it must be updated to reflect reality. A just society does not use a man for ten years to build its homes and feed its people and then throw him out because he has no paper. It regularises him. It gives him dignity. It understands that labour that is essential must be respected as essential.

If America was built by those who came from elsewhere to work and to build a better life for their children, then Latinos and Hispanics are doing exactly what every generation before them did. They are keeping America working. They are keeping America fed. Protecting them is not charity. It is common sense. It is justice.

( Avtar Mota )

PS

Hispanic refers to language - someone with Spanish-speaking heritage, including Spain but not Brazil, while Latino refers to geography - someone from Latin America, including Portuguese-speaking Brazil but not Spain, so a Mexican is both Hispanic and Latino, a Spaniard is only Hispanic, and a Brazilian is only Latino.

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