By Jim Heffernan
I’ve been thinking a lot about José, a cheerful bus driver I met in March 2023. I had just decided to run for Position 1 on the Tillamook County Transportation District board. Mostly because I didn’t want the position to default to a Republican. I also thought I needed to learn about just what the District actually did.
José drove the bus that went from the Transit Center in downtown Tillamook to Manzanita and back. My standout memory of the trip was when he picked up a young Chicana and toddler in Garibaldi. When she got off the bus in Wheeler she told him, “I’m coming back.” We went on to Nehalem and Manzanita.
When we got back to the Wheeler bus stop, she wasn’t there. José waited a couple of minutes and, finally, two blocks away, there she was, walking as fast as she could carrying a toddler. He waited patiently and then took her back to Garibaldi.
I grew up riding city buses in Denver and such a scene would never play out in Denver.
Recently, I’ve had several conversations with José away from the bus. He told me about his life, which he thinks is nothing special, but I think is extraordinary.
José was born in Cuscatancingo, El Salvador in 1983. He was good in school, but by the time he was nineteen he saw his future in El Salvador was dismal. He voted with his feet and started walking and hopping trains north with the goal of crossing the U.S. border. He was young and strong and lucky — he made it. He thanks God he survived the walk through the desert. He became one of those “undocumented immigrants” we are supposed to fear so much.
People tell lies all the time about how undocumented immigrants will bankrupt us by mooching in the welfare line. The truth is that if you don’t have a “green card”, you stay away from any kind of government office. If you want to eat and stay here, you work and you keep your head down.
José has picked apples and cherries. He’s planted fir trees in the hills around our town. For 18 years, he milked cows and mucked out barns so that we can enjoy our Tillamook cheese and ice cream.
José has never drawn unemployment or welfare. He’s married and he and his wife are raising 3 children. He lives in a duplex he owns and he rents out the other half.
He got his “green card” 3 ½ years ago and that let him get a job with the District driving buses. His kind nature and cheerful disposition made him a natural bus driver. He hopes to get his citizenship when he qualifies in two years. I know he will.
I think if we had a few thousand (million?) more immigrants like José, the chronic labor shortage we suffer might disappear.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jim is spot-on with this thought – that’s exactly what is happening. Here’s a recent blog from “Popular Information” – Immigrants are saving the American economy – https://popular.info/p/immigrants-are-saving-the-american?r=hcjs9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
