I went to a
Republican hate-fest yesterday. I was there as the California State Assembly Republican Caucus "Task Force" on Illegal Immigration met at Tustin City Hall. The election-year idea behind this "hearing" was obvious: it gave Republicans running for re-election an opportunity to stir up fear and hate. They wanted to tell rabid, right-wing voters that the Republican Party hears their calls for a crackdown on immigration. Arnold Schwarzenegger - the Governor who called out "Close the border!" and offered praise for the Minutemen -- would have been at this meeting if he weren't too busy masquerading as a moderate. I think I heard the term "sex offender" trotted out at least 2 dozen times. It's clear that the Republicans are doing all they can to shift the blame for their failures while in government over to the old, tried-and-true scapegoat -- immigrants.
Republicans like Arnold want to give red meat to their base of right-wing voters who believe that immigration is the source of most problems in America today including the perennial election-year problems of voter fraud, terrorism, pedophilia, violent crime, and speaking Spanish in public. The Republican elected officials at the Tustin meeting yesterday were there to echo and intensify right-wing scapegoating of immigrants on behalf of Arnold. Newport Beach Assemblyman Chuck DeVore and his Republican allies came down from Sacramento to hold this rally dressed up as a "hearing," complete with invited "experts." The "testimony" came from Republican allies like members of the vigilante Minutemen and owners of large businesses who spoke about their personal crusades to help keep immigrants out of America. Other "experts" including Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Monsoor spoke of the dire threats that immigrants pose to the very fabric of our lives.
None of these "experts" had the numbers on just how many of the millions of immigrant workers who cook meals, clean hotel rooms, design cars, care for children, work the fields, teach college students, build our homes, and otherwise make the American community and economy go - none of the experts could say how many of these people were criminals, terrorists, or pathological voter frauds. But they didn't need numbers - the crowd of about 50 people there in Tustin (many of whom wore Minutemen t-shirts) believe readily that immigrants are the problem. The thing is, these elected officials holding a "hearing" should have been there to help calm racist backlash against immigrants.
Look, it's very reasonable that middle-class voters feel squeezed right now. After 6 years of President Bush's economy, tax breaks have gone to the wealthy, wages for middle class Americans have gone down, and the cost of living has gone up. Jobs have been outsourced overseas, and our investment in education has stagnated as the cost of war has eaten up the budget. The first instinct of many of these middle-class voters is to try to find someone to blame. Immigrants, today as in the past, are often the first people in the line of fire. Responsible public officials will try to soothe this racialized animosity while crafting effective public policy to ease the stress on the middle class. Republicans, it seems, choose the more divisive and hateful route - they stoke the flames of hate, refuse to cut taxes for the middle class, and continue down the path of war rather than make investments in America's future.
And just to show that I'm not making this up - here are some quick facts showing how immigrants really don't deserve the stereotypical image that the Republicans paint of them. The "Task Force" yesterday could have brought in real experts to show that in fact, immigrants (undocumented and documented) have a negligible effect on the wages of native-born citizens. Immigrants, according to economists everywhere, give a huge boost to the economy by providing much-needed hard work (all while they often accept terribly low wages). Immigrants (undocumented and documented) pay more in taxes than they need in the form of government services like public education for their children. On the issue of crime, it's obvious that race plays a part in the scapegoating of Latinos as causing crime. This is one of the oldest and most durable forms of racism - "they look different so they're dangerous." In fact, according to many studies including one by John Hagan and Alberto Palloni (1999), "these misperceptions [linking immigration and crime] are perpetuated by government reports of growing numbers of Hispanic immigrants in U.S. prisons. However, Hispanic immigrants are... more vulnerable to restrictive treatment in the criminal justice system, especially at the pre-trial stage. When these differences are [taken into account]... it is estimated that the involvement of Hispanic immigrants in crime is less than that of citizens. These results cast doubt on the hypothesis that immigration causes crime...." Terrorism - somehow, Republicans have linked September 11 to the issue of immigration, as though every person who has come to America to work and raise their family might belong to a sleeper cell. Well, the biggest terrorists in American history were either native born (Timothy McVeigh) or here legally (Mohammed Atta). There's no evidence to support the claim that terrorists are more likely to come across the border than they are to have grown up right here. And on the silly issue of voter fraud, again, there's no evidence to show that Republicans are losing elections due to the influx of fraudulent, immigrant votes.
The bottom line is that we can all agree, Republicans and the rest of us, that Illegal Immigration isn't good. But the solution isn't more ineffective and expensive fences or draconian police efforts or discrimination on the job site. The solution is a realistic and humane immigration policy. We need a path to citizenship for the people already here without documents, and we need a realistic immigration policy that doesn't criminalize people who come here to work hard for their families. We need real leaders who respect newcomers to America - not Republicans who rely on knee-jerk racism to scapegoat entire groups of people as criminals and terrorists.
Thanks to
PowerPAC.org for sending me to cover this event.
From The Courage Campaign