154 PART TWO INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS CHAPTER 7 EQUAL RIGHTS:STRUGGLING TOWARD FAIRNESS 155 Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington,D.C.,and later seized control of the Illegal Aliens village of Wounded Knee on a Sioux reservation in southwestem South Dakota, exchanging gunfire with U.S.marshals.These episodes brought attention to the Hispanics have benefited from laws and court rulings aimed primarily at grievances of Native Americans and perhaps contributed to passage in 1974 of protecting other groups.Thus,although the Civil Rights Act of 1965 was largely legislation that granted Native Americans on reservations a greater measure of a response to the condition of black people,its provisions apply broadly.Just as control over federal programs affecting them.However,Native Americans had it is unlawful to deny a hotel room to an individual because he or she is black,so already benefited from the legislative climate created by the civil rights it is unlawful to do so because he or she is a Native American,Asian,or movement of the 1960s.In 1968 Congress had enacted the Indian Bill of Rights Hispanic. which gives Native Americans on reservations constitutional guarantees that However,Hispanics face some distinctive problems.The fact that many do are similar to those held by other Americans. not speak English is the main reason for a 1968 amendment to the 1964 Civil In recent years Native Americans have filed suit to reclaim lost ancestral lands Rights Act that funds public school programs offering English instruction in the and have won a few settlements.But they stand no realistic chance of getting language of children for whom English is a second language.In addition,many back even those lands that had been granted them by federal treaty but were Hispanics are illegal aliens;these individuals do not have the full rights of later sold off or simply taken forcibly by federal authorities.Native Americans citizens.In De Canns v.Bica (1976)for example the Supreme Court uphetd a were not even official citizens of the United States until an act of Congress in state law barring illegal aliens from employment 1924.This status came too late to be of much help;their traditional way of life In 1986 Congress passed landmark immigration and naturalization legisla- had already been seriously eroded. tion,the Simpson-Mizzoli Act,which affected Hispanics primarily.The legisla tion provided that illegal aliens who could prove that they had lived continu- HISPANIC AMERICANS ously in the United States for five years were eligible to become citizens.The act also mandated fines for employers who knowingly hired aliens without work The fastest-growing minority in the United States is Hispanic Americans,people permits;the resulting lack of job openings would eliminate the main reason for The son of Mexican immigrants, with Spanish-speaking backgrounds.The 1980 census counted 15 million aliens to enter the country illegally.The legislation was intended partly to Hispanics living in the United States,and it is projected that they will replace. relieve employment and social-service pressures on states bordering Mexico, black Americans as the nation's largest racial or ethnic minority group by the which is the country of origin of most illegal aliens.Hispanic leaders had mixed in 1962 to fight for better pay year 2000.They have emigrated to the United States primarlly from Mexico and reactions to the legislation,welcoming the provision granting citizenship to and working conditions for the Caribbean islands,mainly Cuba and Puerto Rico.About half of all migrant farm laborers and to aliens of long standing residence but worrying that the deportation of nonquali- Pwolestdlaianinalic Hispanics in the United States were homn in Mexico or trace their ancestry there fied atiens would result in the breakup of families.The number of illegal aliens Hispanics.Ironically,the Hispanics are concentrated in their states of entry;thus Florida,New York,and who applied to become citizens fell short of government projections.Apparent- effectiveneas of his efforts made New Jersey have large numbers of Caribbean Hispanics,while Califoria,Texas, ly some aliens were suspicious of the program,believing that they would be unlonization seem less urgent: Arizona,and New Mexico have many immigrants from Mexico.Mor-thahaif arrested and deported when they applied for citizenship at the offices of the he UFWA's members the population of Los Angeles is of Hispanic-mostly Mexican-ancestry. Immigration and Naturalization Service. dropped from 100,000 at its peak in the early 1970s to 20,000 in 1987.Oohn Chase/Stock, Migrant Workers Growing Political Power The most publicized civil rights actions involving Hispanics were the farm Hispanics are an important political force in some states and communities,and workers'strikes of the late 1960s and the 1970s,which aimed at gaining basic their influence is likely to increase substantially in the next decade or two.In labor rights for migrant farm workers.Migrants were working long hours for 1974 Arizona and New Mexico elected governors of Spanish-speaking back- low pay,traveling from place to place as crops became ready for harvesting ground.New Mexico elected its second Hispanic governor in 1982.The Carter They usually lived near the fields where they worked,in shacks without administration included a large number of Hispanics in high positions.Presi- electricity or plumbing.They were unwelcome in many local schools,and dent Reagan appointed an even greater number to positions of authority. sometimes in local hospitals as well,because few of them had health insurance including several members of the White House staff.The growing political and or the money to pay for their medical care cultural influence of Hispanics,however,has made them a target for criticism in Farm owners at first refused to bargain with migrant workers over pay,hours, some cities.For example,some non-Hispanic residents of Miami have become conditions,or benefits.Only after several years of strikes and a surprisingly increasingly vocal in their opposition to bilingual education,claiming that effective nationwide boycott of Califoria grapes and lettuce did California in Spanish-speaking residents (most of whom are of Cuban background)are the 1970s pass a law giving migrant workers the right to bargain collectively making little effort to learn English or adjust to their new culture and are thus through their organization,the United Farm Workers.The strikes were led in turning Miami into a Spanish-speaking city. California by Cesar Chavez,who himself grew up in a Mexican American migrant family.Chavez's tactics in California were copied in other states, particularly Texas,but the results were less successful. "De Canas v.BicA,424 U.5.351 (1976). 5ee F.Chris Garcin and Rudolph O.de la Garza,The Chicamo Politiesl Experience (Duxbury,Mass: n.Sslsi Puedes:Caser Chaoez and the New AmericanRetion (New York Dudbury Pre,197刀