Too busy working to join the marchers

With marchers streaming past his restaurant from breakfast until at least lunch time, Alberto couldn’t afford to close his doors Tuesday and join the rally in downtown Los Angeles. There was good money to be made.

He opened at 7 a.m., pressing his wife and 20-year-old daughter into service behind the counter to serve up huevos rancheros and chilaquiles con huevos. Normally his wife would have been working as a seamstress in the garment district, but Alberto would need her if a crush of customers came through.

Alberto and his wife were married in Mexico City and raised two children there, but they were barely getting by. So 13 years ago they hired a coyote and crossed illegally into the United States. Two years ago, after years of 16-hour days, the couple finally had saved enough to buy this little downtown restaurant.

Alberto, his wife and their two eldest children are still here illegally. A third child, born in the U.S., is the only legal resident in the family.

They all live in a cramped one-bedroom apartment west of downtown.

“He sleeps on the couch,” Alberto’s daughter said. She and her younger sister sleep in bunk beds, and their mother and younger brother share a bed in the same bedroom.

The apartment rents for $1,000 a month. The restaurant rent is $5,000 a month. So Alberto works 13 hours a day, six days a week, with his daughter pitching in nine hours a day.

Drums and horns could be heard on the street outside as the marchers began queuing up, and customers trailed into the restaurant carrying flags and wearing “Immigrant Rights” T-shirts. Alberto was ladling rice and beans onto platters while his daughter worked the cash register, so I had to wait for a break in the action to ask if this life -- squeaking by and always worrying about deportation -- is better than what they had in Mexico.

“It’s better in some ways and in others, not,” said Alberto’s daughter. “Here, we have money to buy clothes and other things we need. In Mexico, we had more time with our family. Here, we’re always working.”

Alberto had another way to explain it.

“With one hour’s pay here,” he said, “I can buy a gallon of milk, bread and eggs. In Mexico, it would take all day to pay for the same.”

Alberto’s wife said it has been surprisingly easy to live illegally in the U.S. It’s the lie so many of us are in on, including financial institutions and political leaders who can’t decide between demonizing illegal immigrants and looking the other way because cheap labor helps drive the economic engine.

Alberto and his wife have credit cards, checking accounts, a business license (in the name of Alberto’s aunt). They pay city, state and federal taxes. If they’re obeying all the laws except the obvious one, Alberto’s wife asked, why can’t they become fuller participants in a society that values their work ethic and contribution?

“I really want to go to college,” said her daughter, who would like to become a nurse. But without a Social Security number, she’s stuck in the restaurant.

A 53-year-old electrician and his wife who stopped in for breakfast on the way to the march echoed the sentiments. Both are illegal after 18 years of working and paying taxes, and the electrician said he longs “to be treated like a human being.”

A 38-year-old flower designer who stopped in for a bite told me her main reason for wanting immigration reform is so she can see family in Mexico. She’s here illegally, so going back and forth is not an option.

She also mentioned that she has seven children, which is sure to prompt some readers to wonder whether she should have been marching to Planned Parenthood instead of a workers’ rights rally.

There are obvious benefits to illegal immigration, but many costs, as well. Namely in education, healthcare -- Alberto’s $1,500 hernia operation at County-USC Medical Center was picked up by taxpayers -- and other government services, as well as the symbolic damage to the rule of law.

That’s all the more reason for Congress to deliver a reform bill that allows for controlled legal entry, gives immigrants both legitimacy and responsibility, and lays waste to the current hypocritical and exploitative wink-and-nod policy.

While he was slaving behind the counter, I asked Alberto if he’d be willing to pay fines to get a work permit and ultimately citizenship.

He said he’d be first in line, and gladly pay as much as $1,000 for each family member.

“We’re saving up right now,” said his daughter. “If they have a program one day, he wants to have the money ready.”

The increased flow of customers coming to march put a few more coins in that piggy bank Tuesday. But Alberto was still torn between wanting to join the parade and wanting the parade to join him for lunch. He stepped outside for a breather, moved his sandwich board advertisement to a more prominent location on the sidewalk, and watched spirited throngs go by. One marcher carried a doll holding a sign. “She’s my nanny,” it read. “Let’s make her legal.”

Alberto watched four, five, six, then seven and eight customers enter his restaurant before he hurried after them and got back to work behind the counter.

steve.lopez@latimes.com