Immigrant Nation
Keith Hazelton
March 19, 2007
An illegal immigration issue now absorbing more of our national attention than necessary has its roots in all prior migratory waves: the search for a better life. We now are told, however, the United States, peopled mostly by descendants of European immigrants searching for a better life since the early 1600s, no longer can tolerate those huddled masses yearning to breathe free, at least if they originate from below our southern border.
A hundred years ago, in the midst of an extraordinary wave of immigration, former president Teddy Roosevelt led another charge expounding the dangers of immigrants who did not assimilate themselves to American language and culture, demanding that entry to the U.S. would be “predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American.”
At the time, especially after the 1914 outbreak of the World War, Roosevelt and others were particularly concerned about German immigrants maintaining allegiance to their fatherland. He wanted America to be one nation, "not a polyglot boarding house.”
This theme repeats itself in the first decade of the new millennium. Of all the controversial issues surrounding immigration, often cited by opponents is a perceived refusal of immigrants to assimilate into “America the new homeland.” Hence the rush to – again – pronounce English as our only official language, eliminate educational instruction in Spanish and other measures.
In the last generation, however, in exchange for nicely manicured lawns and clean offices and abundant fast food, we collectively have turned a blind eye to the immigrants – legal or otherwise, mostly from Mexico – who willingly have filled these jobs. And in pretending they do not exist, since they're not “Americans,” we have created exactly the environment which has led these immigrants to retain an identity with their former homeland, and which, conveniently, we now count against them. Hey, there's a pizza chain in the southwest now accepting payment and giving change in Mexican pesos – it's too late.
Recently illegal immigration again has been attributed as the cause of many serious problems in America. If we cut through the hysteria of über-conservatives, themselves descendants of immigrants, who Pat-Buchanan-like blame everything from manufacturing job-loss to renewed infestations of bed bugs (not kidding) on illegal immigration, we should be alarmed instead by this nationalistic, fault-finding rhetoric with pale undertones of 1930s Germany.
The Jews of Germany were cast by Hitler as outsiders, non-Arians who refused to assimilate into German customs and culture because they saw themselves as Jews first, who were taking away jobs from loyal Germans and, ultimately, who were such to blame for all of that nation's problems that extermination became a perverse final solution. That it was all terrible, nonsensical oratory designed to amass political power did nothing to prevent the murder of more than six million people.
History doesn't repeat itself,” said Mark Twain, “but it rhymes.” There never could be, of course, a “final solution” to illegal immigration problems in America, but scarcely two generations after the second World War, deportation of millions of men, women and children, an often-voiced remedy, would be a sinister, heartless parallel albeit without the murders.
There are plenty of other equally unworkable options but there will be no real action taken on the matter, chiefly because, like flag burning and gay marriage, illegal immigration is one of several hot-button issues cleverly designed to distract us from other pressing problems faced by this country, such as budget deficits, trade deficits, foreign wars, social security and medicare solvency, voter turnout and personal privacy, to name a few.
Among the current, unsatisfactory options under consideration are the “good (2,000-mile) fences make good neighbors” solution (thanks Robert Frost), militarizing our southern border, illegal alien amnesty, “guest worker” programs and, most improbably, deportation of millions of people.
But as gangster Al Capone was brought down by conviction for income tax evasion – not organized crime – so will our southern border illegal immigration problem be more effectively addressed by means other than a multi-billion-dollar, high-tech surveillance fence and our national guard.
The federal government could end most illegal immigration within months, if it so chose, without a Great Wall of America. If employers were required to validate social security numbers and identity documents through real-time databases and report violators who immediately would be arrested, it would prevent most undocumented workers from becoming gainfully employed, the entire object of the illegal immigration experience. Enforcement of violations with government oversight, monetary penalties and jail time for business owners would frighten many business people into compliance.
Such a system would move us closer, of course, to that Big Brother society in the offing. We're nearly there anyway, so maybe we should dispense with the formalities and just start inserting the microchips in everyone. Get an official U.S. microchip and the problem is solved. No microchip, no life in America. When every citizen has a microchip only illegals and evildoers will not. Welcome to America, amigo, the national security state.
In reality, the government knows it would create a brutal economic recession if businesses suddenly would be forced to fire their undocumented workers and to increase wages to attract real American employees to do “the jobs that not even blacks want to do,” as former Mexican president Vicente Fox so reprehensibly observed last year.
Massive dismissals of currently employed illegal immigrants also would create an instant criminal class of unemployable, hungry, homeless, desperate men and women who could create all kinds of mischief and mayhem and who would overwhelm our justice system and prisons as they awaited extradition.
A more practical solution: continue our 400-year tradition and let them in - all of them, legally, from anywhere – as they only desire to have a better life. The America that was founded in 1776 stood exactly for that – the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. Our immigrant-Founders would be ashamed to know that in 2007 many of its citizens, all descended from immigrants except Native Americans, no longer feel the same.
And, in the spirit of Teddy Roosevelt, we must pledge to help immigrants “in every facet become an American.” Come to think of it, many Americans by birth, who don't vote and would know only a few of the answers to questions on our citizenship test, may need the same help.
A hundred years ago, in the midst of an extraordinary wave of immigration, former president Teddy Roosevelt led another charge expounding the dangers of immigrants who did not assimilate themselves to American language and culture, demanding that entry to the U.S. would be “predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American.”
At the time, especially after the 1914 outbreak of the World War, Roosevelt and others were particularly concerned about German immigrants maintaining allegiance to their fatherland. He wanted America to be one nation, "not a polyglot boarding house.”
This theme repeats itself in the first decade of the new millennium. Of all the controversial issues surrounding immigration, often cited by opponents is a perceived refusal of immigrants to assimilate into “America the new homeland.” Hence the rush to – again – pronounce English as our only official language, eliminate educational instruction in Spanish and other measures.
In the last generation, however, in exchange for nicely manicured lawns and clean offices and abundant fast food, we collectively have turned a blind eye to the immigrants – legal or otherwise, mostly from Mexico – who willingly have filled these jobs. And in pretending they do not exist, since they're not “Americans,” we have created exactly the environment which has led these immigrants to retain an identity with their former homeland, and which, conveniently, we now count against them. Hey, there's a pizza chain in the southwest now accepting payment and giving change in Mexican pesos – it's too late.
Recently illegal immigration again has been attributed as the cause of many serious problems in America. If we cut through the hysteria of über-conservatives, themselves descendants of immigrants, who Pat-Buchanan-like blame everything from manufacturing job-loss to renewed infestations of bed bugs (not kidding) on illegal immigration, we should be alarmed instead by this nationalistic, fault-finding rhetoric with pale undertones of 1930s Germany.
The Jews of Germany were cast by Hitler as outsiders, non-Arians who refused to assimilate into German customs and culture because they saw themselves as Jews first, who were taking away jobs from loyal Germans and, ultimately, who were such to blame for all of that nation's problems that extermination became a perverse final solution. That it was all terrible, nonsensical oratory designed to amass political power did nothing to prevent the murder of more than six million people.
History doesn't repeat itself,” said Mark Twain, “but it rhymes.” There never could be, of course, a “final solution” to illegal immigration problems in America, but scarcely two generations after the second World War, deportation of millions of men, women and children, an often-voiced remedy, would be a sinister, heartless parallel albeit without the murders.
There are plenty of other equally unworkable options but there will be no real action taken on the matter, chiefly because, like flag burning and gay marriage, illegal immigration is one of several hot-button issues cleverly designed to distract us from other pressing problems faced by this country, such as budget deficits, trade deficits, foreign wars, social security and medicare solvency, voter turnout and personal privacy, to name a few.
Among the current, unsatisfactory options under consideration are the “good (2,000-mile) fences make good neighbors” solution (thanks Robert Frost), militarizing our southern border, illegal alien amnesty, “guest worker” programs and, most improbably, deportation of millions of people.
But as gangster Al Capone was brought down by conviction for income tax evasion – not organized crime – so will our southern border illegal immigration problem be more effectively addressed by means other than a multi-billion-dollar, high-tech surveillance fence and our national guard.
The federal government could end most illegal immigration within months, if it so chose, without a Great Wall of America. If employers were required to validate social security numbers and identity documents through real-time databases and report violators who immediately would be arrested, it would prevent most undocumented workers from becoming gainfully employed, the entire object of the illegal immigration experience. Enforcement of violations with government oversight, monetary penalties and jail time for business owners would frighten many business people into compliance.
Such a system would move us closer, of course, to that Big Brother society in the offing. We're nearly there anyway, so maybe we should dispense with the formalities and just start inserting the microchips in everyone. Get an official U.S. microchip and the problem is solved. No microchip, no life in America. When every citizen has a microchip only illegals and evildoers will not. Welcome to America, amigo, the national security state.
In reality, the government knows it would create a brutal economic recession if businesses suddenly would be forced to fire their undocumented workers and to increase wages to attract real American employees to do “the jobs that not even blacks want to do,” as former Mexican president Vicente Fox so reprehensibly observed last year.
Massive dismissals of currently employed illegal immigrants also would create an instant criminal class of unemployable, hungry, homeless, desperate men and women who could create all kinds of mischief and mayhem and who would overwhelm our justice system and prisons as they awaited extradition.
A more practical solution: continue our 400-year tradition and let them in - all of them, legally, from anywhere – as they only desire to have a better life. The America that was founded in 1776 stood exactly for that – the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. Our immigrant-Founders would be ashamed to know that in 2007 many of its citizens, all descended from immigrants except Native Americans, no longer feel the same.
And, in the spirit of Teddy Roosevelt, we must pledge to help immigrants “in every facet become an American.” Come to think of it, many Americans by birth, who don't vote and would know only a few of the answers to questions on our citizenship test, may need the same help.