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He is the founder and managing partner of Heygood, Orr, Reyes, Pearson & Bartolomei law firm in Dallas, where he has helped nearly 20,000 immigrants during the course of his law career.)

The furor over the swine flu. The drug wars in Mexico. A recent Supreme Court decision in an immigrant identity theft case.

These developments are providing fresh fodder for anti-immigration activists in the U.S. and threaten to hurt perceptions of Hispanics. Across the country, many folks from talk show host Glenn Beck and his FOX News colleagues to average citizens are blaming President Barack Obama, our current immigration policies and insufficient border control for the spread of swine flu.

Activists and members of Congress called for closing the U.S.-Mexico border after the flu began flowing out of our neighboring nation to the south. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court's recent decision in Flores-Figueroa v. United States will most likely worsen anti-immigration sentiments.(The high court reversed an illegal immigrant's conviction in an identity theft case.)
This could set the precedent for lighter penalties for illegal immigrants who break the law.

With perhaps as many as 12 million illegal immigrants already in this country what many see as problem could be America's greatest opportunity for growth since the turn of the century.

Many legal and illegal immigrants in the U.S. come from Mexico and are therefore of Hispanic descent, which is why Mexico's swine flu epidemic has lead some to target Hispanics in this country. But many of the confirmed cases of the flu in the U.S. come from American citizens of all backgrounds who visited Mexico.

As the hysteria surrounding the swine flu winds down, many will be left to ponder the current immigration policy in this country. Indeed, anti-immigration activists are using this epidemic as evidence that we should crack down on illegal immigrants. However, their sentiments have been sorely misplaced.

Hispanics offer several benefits, such as a similarity in life goals and an eagerness to assimilate to our culture. Proof of this is in a 2004 Pew Hispanic Center study on Hispanics' adoption of English. The study indicates that as many as 78 percent of third-generation Hispanics use English as their dominant form of communication. A strong work ethic has also proved invaluable to our economic structure as legal and illegal immigrants alike continue to work the lowest-tier of jobs, where they often labor under dangerous conditions in places like factories and construction sites.

Further compounding the immigration issue is the recent upswing in violence along the U.S.-Mexico border, which has concerned many Americans as the drug wars have escalated in past few months.

The drug cartels in Mexico and South America are struggling to satisfy the global appetite for cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana. Since the early 1990s, when most of these drug cartels emerged to facilitate the shipment of drugs to numerous countries, the war on drugs has driven many cartels in Mexico to fight turf wars near the border because they must get past rival cartels to reach the American soil where the biggest market for their products reside.

This increased violence in and around the border has affected Americans' perceptions of Mexico as they see families in El Paso and other border areas grieving the loss of their loved ones on the nightly news. Americans are now scared to venture into Mexico, but they need to remember that the cartels may be dangerous but are not representative of Mexico's population as a whole. With billions of dollars spent each year in consumer spending, strong family values and a desire for education, Hispanics have much to contribute.

To contact the author, e-mail angel@reyeslaw.com

©2009 Angel Reyes
www.ReyesLaw.com