Griego: A move to integrate — not to assimilate

This article talks about how immigrants and citizens have to learn to trust and respect each other. Immigrants should learn the rules and keep their house and yard so it fits into the rest of the neighborhood. Then everyone will get along better. - - Donna Poisl

By Tina Griego, Denver Post Columnist

On Thursday, while President Barack Obama was meeting with lawmakers on immigration reform, about 300 people gathered in downtown Denver to talk about how to best integrate immigrants into American society.

Before I go any further, let me first take you back to City Councilman Paul Lopez's congreso last weekend, where people from his southwest Denver district spent three hours discussing their community's problems and what to do about them.

They rattled off issues like graffiti and illegal dumping and too much noise and not enough parking. I waited for someone to say, "illegal immigration," but no one did.

The American citizens, white and Latino, on that block all told me the same thing: The issue for them was not so much that their neighbor might be an illegal immigrant. The issue was that the neighbor was washing her laundry in a tub in the front yard and hanging wet underwear on rope strung from the porch to the tree to the fence post. The issue was that 14 people lived next door. The issue was that they could not communicate with their Spanish-speaking neighbors.
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