They strongly believed that moving to the United States would give them a more prosperous life. The economic benefits were a large motive for many who immigrated to the U.S. For example, the Ortiz family moved to the U.S. so that they could make more money, and retire in the Dominican Republic for a better life(My American Girls). The reason the Ortiz family was able to do this is because the value of the Dominican Peso is much less than the US dollar. This is due to the economy in the Dominican Republic being significantly worse than in the U.S..Relatively speaking, in the U.S. the Ortiz family was actually quite poor, but their purchasing power increases exponentially when they went back to the Dominican Republic. This indicates their primary motive of moving and obtaining work in the U.S.. More generally, many Latino immigrants came to the U.S. because their home countries economies were weaker than the U.S. economy, and they wanted to accumulate more wealth. Lastly, large wave of Latin Americans came to the U.S. due to political reasons. These conflicts included the Cold War in the Dominican Republic and Cuba, and Operation Bootstrap in Puerto Rico. …show more content…
The Central American Relief Act only offered temporary protection status to those coming from Central America. Therefore, they were under temporary protection, until the end of the Cold War, where that status was revoked, making them undocumented. More than half of all Salvadoran immigrants resided in either Texas or California. Many of these men and women joined the civil labor force, particularly concentrating in construction and services. Children from Honduras were either released to family members, or placed in foster families. Honduran children are not being held in detention facilities since under federal law, unaccompanied minors have to move out of detention centers within 72 hours. Undocumented Mexican immigrants who had been caught were deported back to Mexico. However, if they are minors, they are detained and released to sponsors. The majority of Dominicans immigrated into the Northeast region of the U.S., with over half of all Dominicans living in New York. Most Dominicans work in nonunionized workplaces for very low wages. Dominicans have also faced racial prejudice, since they are categorized as black by white