A Nation of Immigrants that Hates Them

  

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Emma Lazarus in 1883 inscribed on a bronze plaque placed inside the Statue of Liberty

“The President believes that America can simultaneously be a lawful, economically dynamic, and welcoming society. We must address the problem of illegal immigration and deliver a system that is secure, productive, orderly, and fair. The President calls on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform that will secure our borders, enhance interior and worksite enforcement, create a temporary worker program, resolve – without animosity and without amnesty – the status of illegal immigrants already here, and promote assimilation into our society. All elements of this problem must be addressed together – or none of them will be solved.” 

2007 Opening of Proposal to Congress for Immigration Reform by President George W. Bush

Crop failures in Europe occurred just as transatlantic transportation modernized. Immigration was wide open for land that needed laborers and workers to build the nation. But when Irish and Italian immigrants landed, most unskilled, they were fiercely opposed by anti-Catholic mobs. For the Africans that preceded them, theirs was not a journey of choice, and their entry into mainstream society continues to be challenged well over a century and a half later. After the Civil War, America needed building, expansion and growth to fill a vast and rich nation on the road to becoming the greatest superpower on earth. Was the nation ready for them? Perhaps, it if the immigrants were White. But the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 underscored America’s required racial preferences. That law changed over half century later.

The last significant US immigration reform came in 1986, during the Reagan administration: “The Immigration Reform and Control Act altered U.S. immigration law by making it illegal to hire illegal immigrants knowingly and establishing financial and other penalties for companies that employed illegal immigrants. The act also legalized most undocumented immigrants who had arrived in the country prior to January 1, 1982.” Wikipedia. In over three and half decades, nothing. Through Republican and Democratic administrations. Nothing. Not even a bill from a Republican President from a border state. Texan George W Bush’s efforts noted above were rejected by his own party. DACA reform. Never happened.

As immigration issues have been perhaps the leading continuous challenge to Congressional policymakers in Washington, as protestors from both parties have demanded changes, as conservative state governors have attempted to usurp the exclusive constitutional jurisdiction granted to the federal government over immigration and as dozens of bills have crashed and burned en route to congressional floor votes… nothing. Elected on a strong “rapists and murders” platform that included building an expensive wall, Donald Trump failed to deliver his promised solution to the immigration crisis. Joe Biden, not deviating significantly on the treatment of asylum seekers, faced international law: asylum seekers have rights. Evangelicals are even willing to put the New Testament aside to oppose these desperate people.

“Not only does the US have an international legal obligation to do so, based on the requirement of complying with the object and purpose of the 1951 Refugee Convention, and implementing legal obligations in good faith, it has an obligation to do so under its own domestic law… The duty not to return a person to a state where they may face torture or other serious harms is absolute under the UN’s Convention Against Torture. The US has signed and ratified this convention.” TheConversation.com, January 27, 2017.

The problem is that honoring that obligation has become intensely unpopular, on both sides of the aisle. Words like “invasion” and “attack” are countered with “humanitarianism” and “common decency.” But as autocracy rises, global conflict escalates and climate change decimates agriculture and access to potable water, we know the pressures on migration will only increase. Our nation is paralyzed in finding a solution; the underlying hypocrisy only intensifies.

“That stalemate manifested itself again in the closing days of the current congressional session, as a bipartisan group of senators conceded that they could not get enough support to move ahead with a limited package of immigration reforms. In the new Congress, with Republicans taking control of the House, the prospects for passage of any immigration legislation will dim further.

“House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), seeking to bolster support among conservatives, has threatened to start impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, whose department includes the nation’s immigration enforcement agencies. But McCarthy has not proposed legislation to solve the system’s problems.

“Attitudes toward immigrants were among the strongest predictors of who voted for former President Trump in 2016 and 2020. That started early: In the 2016 Republican primaries, voters who favored making immigration more difficult were significantly more likely to support Trump than his GOP rivals… General election voters who switched from supporting President Obama in 2012 to Trump four years later — a small but crucial group whose votes helped deliver Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to Trump in 2016 — were especially likely to favor tougher immigration rules , according to a detailed analysis by the nonpartisan Voter Study Group.

“The L.A. Times/YouGov poll, released in mid-December, underscores how that divide continues to shape U.S. policy and politics… Roughly 3 in 10 adult Americans believe that immigration makes the country worse off, the poll found. A slightly larger group, 35%, believes immigration makes the country better off, and the remaining third say they don’t know or don’t think immigration makes much difference… The group that says immigration makes the U.S. worse off overwhelmingly backed Trump. Among those who voted in 2020, 77% went for Trump, and 21% for Joe Biden. Those who say immigration makes the country better off were similarly one-sided in their support for Biden. (Those who said they don’t know what impact immigration has or don’t think it makes much difference were notable for their disengagement — almost half said they didn’t vote in 2020.)

“Economic concerns are not necessarily the big driver of opposition to immigration. Asked if unauthorized immigrants take jobs Americans want, those who say immigration makes the country worse off split almost evenly: 43% said yes, 39% said no, and 18% weren’t sure. A large majority, 60%, of those who say immigration makes the country better say unauthorized immigrants take jobs other Americans don’t want… Instead of a debate driven primarily by economic concerns, feelings about immigration are tied closely to the issues of identity and culture that have driven partisanship in the Trump era.” David Lauter, writing for the December 26th Los Angeles Times. We need new rules… but we have no one to make them. Executive orders are swiftly challenged in court. Only Congress can act. It won’t.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if you think it’s bad now, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.