An American Tradition

It has been interesting, lately, to see the venomous rage directed by conservatives at the most recent influx of immigrants coming across the border. Fleeing increasingly violent drug wars in Central America, some 57,000 children have recently made the treacherous journey from their home countries, across Mexico and into the United States, overwhelming the Border Patrol and existing facilities. The response of the right has been fairly predictable. Xenophobia and hatred of undocumented immigrants has, after all, been a staple of right-wing politics for quite some time, most recently in the backlash against George W. Bush's attempt at immigration reform. But with this new group of immigrants, the ugly side of conservativism's immigration stance has again come to the fore, with sign-waving protesters and right-wing militias descending on the border, determined to "secure" it, while accusing the President of being soft on immigration at best, of perpetuating some kind of bizarre conspiracy at worst. This of course, belittle's the mixed record of the current Administration on immigration, a record that has shown more discretion in just which undocumented immigrants are sent back, while at the same time deporting record numbers of illegals. The President's left-of-center detractors have even begun to refer to him as the "Deporter in Chief." 

Yesterday Robert Reich posted a status decrying the ugliness of the current anti-immigration sentiment, and I'm inclined to agree. The sight of U.S. citizens blockading buses of undocumented immigrants, largely consisting of families and children, with signs and ugly shouts is disconcerting. Surely, Reich wondered, with our long history of immigration we are better than this? Yet anti-immigrant sentiment is as grand an American tradition as immigration itself. The current hostility towards immigrants, both legal and illegal, is merely the most recent manifestation of a hypocrisy that stretches back a long way, a hypocrisy that says "My immigrant ancestors were hard-working and noble. But these immigrants now are lazy and worthless!" Immigration for me, but not for thee, to put it lightly. It is a strange idea that historical immigration was fine when one's own ancestors came over, but we need no longer bring in new citizens from outside the country. Those who hold this worldview draw upon an odd sort of mythologized idea of a "golden age" of immigration, with grainy black and white film, Ellis Island and plenty of images of the Statue of Liberty to populate this fantasy world. The honest truth is that the same anti-immigrant sentiment expressed itself then as it does now, just as today's immigrants fill the same role in our society as they did in the past.

Anti-immigrant sentiment of one hundred years ago

The names have changed, but the overall tone of the debate remains quite the same. What now vents its wrath upon mostly-Hispanic illegals from the south (as well as immigrants from the Middle East), was once vented upon Italians, Eastern Europeans, and Irish. With each new wave of immigration, vocal native-born U.S. citizens were beside themselves about how these immigrants were destroying the fabric of the country, each one oblivious to the hypocrisy of opposing current immigration while their own ancestors had crossed into the country too. 

Our country's record of hostility to immigration is long and depressing. There was the anti-immigrant hysteria of World War I, that saw growing hostility towards recent German immigrants. The "Red Scare" of the 1920s helped lead to several laws which severely restricted immigration. There were the Japanese internment camps of the Second World War, and the reluctance to admit Jewish refugees from Europe both before and during the war, and these are only the most notorious examples.

Each group, from the Know-Nothing Party until now, has been both hypocritical and wrong. Immigration makes this country stronger, each group bringing new life into our social and political worlds. Where would we be without the contributions they have made to our republic? What is happening now demonstrates the need, long overdue, for an overhaul of our immigration laws, to provide for a fairer system that will continue to strengthen our country. Further, the most recent influx is not immigration so much as it is a humanitarian, refugee crisis. It is an insult to our sense of who we are that these children are being met with xenophobic hostility, when we should work to protect them while helping end the conflicts that are driving them here in the very first place. As Americans, we pride ourselves on being generous and kind to others. The mean-spiritedness of the anti-immigrant groups undermine that. We can do better. The current issues surrounding immigration in this country have solutions. But they will be found with thoughtful, considered dialogue, not bumper sticker slogans and hysteria. 

Today's Know-Nothing Party