For Fernando Fernandez Jr., becoming a citizen means security for his family 
 
By DONALD L. BARLETT & JAMES B. STEELE

Millions of Hispanic families who immigrate to the U.S. from Mexico and other Latin American countries each year arrive the old-fashioned way—legally. Among many of them, patience is running thin with the waves of aliens who ignore the law. Fernando Fernandez Jr., of Gila Bend, Ariz., speaks with great pride about how his father gained entry under a guest-worker program in the 1950s. "They announced [the program] in Mexico, and he and my uncle went," the son recalls. "They did a physical on him at the border. They drew blood and everything. Once he got accepted, he worked on a farm in the Eloy area. One of his supervisors sponsored him to stay. They liked the way he worked. He became a green-card holder."

Fernandez was 3 years old when he arrived in Arizona. "I went from Head Start through high school [in Gila Bend]," he says. "I didn't speak any English. Two school aides were Mexican. I communicated with them." Because of language difficulties, he repeated the first grade. "I remember wearing secondhand clothes. I didn't have Nikes. I had canvas tennis shoes."

But that was then. Now Fernandez, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen, is married and has two children, one starting high school, the other in elementary school. His wife Anna is a teacher's aide. He works two jobs, one in purchasing at the nearby Air Force base and the other at night for a janitorial service.

Several years ago, when an aunt and her son wanted to come to the U.S. legally, Fernandez and his wife volunteered to co-sponsor them. "I had to give up all my information [to the U.S. government]. They needed all my tax returns. They needed proof of income. They needed all my banking information. Any kind of monies that I had put away, they needed all that kind of information," he says, as proof of his wherewithal to sponsor the new arrivals. "I'm financially responsible for them. They cannot go out and, if they put in a claim, say, for food stamps and stuff like that, it'll all come back to me. I've got to provide for them."

Fernandez says it was a long, laborious process. From beginning to end, "I'm going to say it took them three to four years ... But you have all these thousands of people who just walk across the border. They know how to beat the system. They take advantage of all the [government] programs. They get free health care. I pay an outrageous amount of money for health insurance."

Still, he has no regrets for having played it straight: "There are a lot of people who do this the legal way. Otherwise, you have no security." Fernandez says when he and his wife return to Mexico for visits, "it breaks our hearts when [the children] clean the car window. They sell pieces of gum. I always thank God that Dad brought us to this country. You can have whatever you want as long as you work."