Delousing Anti-foreigner Patriotism

By Randell A. Monaco
January 09, 2011

How many times will the illegal immigration card be played as a political smoke screen before Americans begin to comprehend the shame of our anti-foreigner patriotism? Not long ago, while discussing new immigration policies being instituted in Arizona a friend commented that, “every time conservatives take too much out of the system they play the illegal alien card.” She was quick to point out that this same type of manipulative smokescreen had appeared in the mid 90’s following the George Bush administration.

Not long ago, in April of 2009, an email chain letter was making the rounds claiming that the amount of money taxpayers spend on illegal immigrants would be enough to "stimulate the economy.” The sources cited in the email letter attributed at least nine specific points to either the conservative Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) or the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), both of which call for more restrictive immigration laws.

A quick look at the more recent George W. Bush era doesn’t seem to support this reoccurring theory of illegal immigration economics. The three biggest hits to our economy occurred from 2001 to 2008. First was the Tax Cuts for the rich that reduced annual tax revenue available for public needs by 300 billion each year. Unfortunately, and with the blessing our current President making matters worse, these cuts were extended by capitulation in the final weeks of the 111th Congress.

The second economic hit to our economy results from the Bush/Cheney occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan which as of 2008 has cost $700 billion according to Congressional Research Service. This has been calculated to amount to $400 million a day by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz who also has estimated that the tab is well over $2 trillion when you add in rehabilitation for injured vets, replacement of military hardware and the value of things we could have produced (but didn’t) with that money during their administration.

The third economic hit is not from illegal immigration, it’s a result of banking deregulation. An ideological absurdity obviously lost on the likes of presidential hopeful Ron Paul who has claimed that banking regulation is not needed. Worse, the real tab on bank deregulation is not in yet as home prices are projected to continue to decline through 2011 and of even greater concern is the possibility that strategic defaults could let the bottom out of the entire market place. At this point, there should be little argument that deregulation of banking, not illegal immigration has brought our economy to its knees, causing the collapse of banks in addition to the steep decline in the value of most American homes along with a sharp rise in the cost of living in them.

Returning to the misleading illegal immigration smoke screen being repeated once again as our economy struggles on, a more objective and responsible perspective can be found in a 2007 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office which examined 29 reports on state and local costs published over 15 years. Attempting to answer our concern about illegal immigration the CBO concluded that most of the estimates determined that illegal immigrants impose a net cost to state and local governments but "that impact is most likely modest." CBO said "no agreement exists as to the size of, or even the best way of measuring, that cost on a national level."

Author David Dorado Romo suggests, and many of us agree, that it’s time for America to start apologizing for it’s shameful immigration past and change a history that keeps repeating itself, over and over again. In his February 26th, 2006 editorial for the Los Angeles Times, Crossing the line, he confirms that the anti-immigrant fervor that continues to sweep across the U.S. is nothing new. He talks about decades of indignities put upon Mexican immigrants going back to 1904.

Mr. Romo correctly points out border crossers were not considered illegal in the US until 1917, the year that we entered World War I. Anti-foreigner patriotism and paranoia sweep the country fearing that Germans would launch bombing raids from Mexico. As a protest against Germany, Americans changed the name of frankfurters to hot dogs and sauerkraut to “liberty cabbage.”

Civic leaders and Anglo intellectuals such as Stanford Chancellor David Starr Jordan and Los Angeles Times owner Harry Chandler were influential in helping to draft the restrictive Immigration Act of 1924 which established the first U.S. Border Patrol to keep what racial hygienists saw as “genetically inferior aliens” out of the country.

For decades, border crossers were forced to endure the humiliation of a delousing process that included stripping naked, bathing with kerosene and vinegar, and sometimes being forced to shave hairy parts or be denied entry. Even into the 50’s, long after the threat of German bombs, Mexican laborers were being sprayed with DDT before being allowed entry into the U.S.

A few years ago several state governments, including California, apologized for the thousands of forced sterilizations carried out in the name of eugenics that had occurred into the 1970s.

If anything, this kind of treatment at the international checkpoints has exacerbated illegal border crossings and led to a Republican proposal for a 700-mile border fence. In the 1990’s, social and economic inequities in Mexico and other Latin American countries continued to push people north. Unable to find well-paid work at home or along the US-Mexican border, millions of immigrants risked capture by illegally crossing the border to find a better life. Their presence in this country has fueled an ever more strident anti-immigrant backlash which scuttled Congress’ attempt to pass comprehensive immigration reform in 2007. Since then, border enforcement has been stepped up, workplace raids have increased and deportations have more often been carried out in inhumane ways.

In response, a New Sanctuary Movement whose roots go back to the 1980s was formed to showcase and provide refuge for unauthorized people who voluntarily came forward to claim sanctuary, in the hope of calling attention to the plight of the millions of immigrants who live in fear of arrest and separation from their families. It’s undeniable that it takes courage and a willingness to serve a larger cause to play this role.

Last April we had the good fortune of sharing my father’s 90th Birthday with a large group of friends who assembled to share in the celebration. I shared a table at our celebration with the three adult children of now deceased Marco Palumbo, founder of the once famous Marco's in Coronado. In the early 1950s their father Marco, an illegal immigrant at the time, was sponsored and worked for my father where he met their mother who also worked in our family restaurant. You can read more about their family and pursuit of their dream of coming to America as portrayed by their cousin (paisan) who continues in the family tradition. (http://www.palumbosristorante.com/history)

Not unlike the plight of other immigrants, our families worked hard and contributed. They raised their children to become Americans, serve in our military, became lawyers, doctors, teachers, business owners and when given the opportunity - citizens.

Unfortunately, the immigration card has become a standard tool in the politician’s repertoire of attacking unrepresented class. How many decades of inhumane immigration policies will continue to pass before America has to stop apologizing for a history that’s not safely stored away in our repeating immigration history?