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The Great Immigration Panic

Tuesday 03 June 2008

by:   |  The New York Times | Editorial

photo
Marta Granillo cries for her husband after relatives and friends were arrested in an immigration raid at a plant in Greeley, Colorado, in 2006.
(Photo: Ahmad Terry / The Rocky Mountain News / AP)

    Someday, the country will recognize the true cost of its war on illegal immigration. We don't mean dollars, though those are being squandered by the billions. The true cost is to the national identity: the sense of who we are and what we value. It will hit us once the enforcement fever breaks, when we look at what has been done and no longer recognize the country that did it.

    A nation of immigrants is holding another nation of immigrants in bondage, exploiting its labor while ignoring its suffering, condemning its lawlessness while sealing off a path to living lawfully. The evidence is all around that something pragmatic and welcoming at the American core has been eclipsed, or is slipping away.

    An escalating campaign of raids in homes and workplaces has spread indiscriminate terror among millions of people who pose no threat. After the largest raid ever last month - at a meatpacking plant in Iowa - hundreds were swiftly force-fed through the legal system and sent to prison. Civil-rights lawyers complained, futilely, that workers had been steamrolled into giving up their rights, treated more as a presumptive criminal gang than as potentially exploited workers who deserved a fair hearing. The company that harnessed their desperation, like so many others, has faced no charges.

    Immigrants in detention languish without lawyers and decent medical care even when they are mortally ill. Lawmakers are struggling to impose standards and oversight on a system deficient in both. Counties and towns with spare jail cells are lining up for federal contracts as prosecutions fill the system to bursting. Unbothered by the sight of blameless children in prison scrubs, the government plans to build up to three new family detention centers. Police all over are checking papers, empowered by politicians itching to enlist in the federal crusade.

    This is not about forcing people to go home and come back the right way. Ellis Island is closed. Legal paths are clogged or do not exist. Some backlogs are so long that they are measured in decades or generations. A bill to fix the system died a year ago this month. The current strategy, dreamed up by restrictionists and embraced by Republicans and some Democrats, is to force millions into fear and poverty.

    There are few national figures standing firm against restrictionism. Senator Edward Kennedy has bravely done so for four decades, but his Senate colleagues who are running for president seem by comparison to be in hiding. John McCain supported sensible reform, but whenever he mentions it, his party starts braying and he leaves the room. Hillary Rodham Clinton has lost her voice on this issue more than once. Barack Obama, gliding above the ugliness, might someday test his vision of a new politics against restrictionist hatred, but he has not yet done so. The American public's moderation on immigration reform, confirmed in poll after poll, begs the candidates to confront the issue with courage and a plan. But they have been vague and discreet when they should be forceful and unflinching.

    The restrictionist message is brutally simple - that illegal immigrants deserve no rights, mercy or hope. It refuses to recognize that illegality is not an identity; it is a status that can be mended by making reparations and resuming a lawful life. Unless the nation contains its enforcement compulsion, illegal immigrants will remain forever Them and never Us, subject to whatever abusive regimes the powers of the moment may devise.

    Every time this country has singled out a group of newly arrived immigrants for unjust punishment, the shame has echoed through history. Think of the Chinese and Irish, Catholics and Americans of Japanese ancestry. Children someday will study the Great Immigration Panic of the early 2000s, which harmed countless lives, wasted billions of dollars and mocked the nation's most deeply held values.

  

Comments

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Stop having children!! Run

 Tue, 06/03/2008 - 23:48 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
Stop having children!! Run away ignorance is spilling over our borders and we're getting people who are oblivious to what they are doing to our planet by having one child after another and really can't provide for them. Stay and make changes in your own country instead of coming over here and taking advantage of what many have done to advance civil rights. Fight your own fight oven in your own country and above all, STOP HAVING KIDS!!

"Children someday will study

 Wed, 06/04/2008 - 01:02 β€” Mike in NYC (not verified)
"Children someday will study the Great Immigration Panic of the early 2000s, which harmed countless lives, wasted billions of dollars and mocked the nation's most deeply held values." Actually, there'll be very little studying at all, as the unassimilated progeny of third-world immigrants make schools non-functional by historical Western standards, while European-American children wonder how and why their parents and grandparents gave their country away.

Dude. People who come to

 Wed, 06/04/2008 - 01:21 β€” Randje (not verified)
Dude. People who come to another country to fly under the radar do so at a calculated risk. This is known going in. Whatever the country. The odds may vary capriciously, but at what point does Breezing Past Requirements and slipping illegally into the host's economy via the workforce transmorrify into the Right to Citizenship? We do not tolerate a person--of any nationality-- crashing through the line, slipping quietly around the paperwork ignoring the rules, unless that is, we are afraid of them. The only practical solution worth discussing is found in the Big Picture File and addresses the gross inequities, the well-placed and very-maintenanced obstacles that engender impoverished economies just across an artificial line on a map from an affluent one. The answer is not to disappear the borders. Try talking Canada into such a thing, or any other country for that matter. Such laxity throws things into imbalance, and embitters the citizenry. Which works against the gate=-crashers over time. Anything can be rationalized after-the-fact, and so it is with illegals. I've heard it emphasized, for example,that illegals take only the jobs that Americans don't want. That is a partial factoid, and doesn't reflect the truth that as the economy is lying gasping for breath, there will be no surplus jobs of any kind. I belong to a construction union in the southwest, and the jobs I go on are always teeming with illegals, earning union wages with invalid social security numbers. I do not begrudge a working man hitting the lottery like that on such a wager, but the fact is they are working jobs that belong rightfully to Americans. And many American carpenter's wait for work while illegals collectively siphon off an impressive portion of the wages. We as Americans are made to play by the rules: Do not tell me it is unreasonable to expect that and more from those who wish to relocate to America.

Right you should be

 Wed, 06/04/2008 - 01:33 β€” jpoverseas (not verified)
Right you should be anonymous, 23:48. First, as the editorial points out, unless you are Native American, you are a descendant of one or more earlier immigrant groups despised as dirty, immoral, overprolific thieves of "real" Americans livelihoods. Just how why is it that these folks are to stop having what you have deemed too many kids? Children in much of the world, including that part south of our border, both necessary to earning enough to stay alive and the only old age pension available. Moreover, proven ways of decreasing fertility, including womens' eduction, access to free birth control and to abortion, ain't on nobody's table these days. Perhaps you like the Bush solution: only the rich get to have sex. Instead of berating folks who are willing to work hard and live on little, perhaps you should stop demanding the right to consume 10-20 times your fair human share of the energy, food, air, water, trees, minerals, plants, and animals available on this limited planet. Perhaps then these folks you so despise would be able to stay where most of them would prefer to stay anyway. Or perhaps you should just go back where you came from if the situation here don't suit. One more thing. Just who are you going to find to do all the dirty work your no doubt comfortable life requires at the wages immigrants accept when they all go back? Somehow I doubt you will be doing it, and you're gonna scream at what it'll cost you. To see what you think you want, check out the movie "A Day Without Mexicans."

"Stay and make changes in

 Wed, 06/04/2008 - 01:53 β€” Natasha (not verified)
"Stay and make changes in your own country instead of coming over here and taking advantage of what many have done to advance civil rights. " I would argue that neither you nor I are any more entitled to previous civil rights advancements than to someone who was born in a different country. What if you were born in Mexico, in poverty, with no possibility of a job and no money for contraception? Would you 'deserve' that? Who are we to say "fight your own fight," especially as the only fight that is going to result in a win for the people now is going to be an international one? One for all and all for one needs to be our motto still-- all being the bottom 98% of the world population in wealth. Separatism only makes everyone's situation worse. Please heed well the message of this article.

How can we, who profess to

 Wed, 06/04/2008 - 01:56 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
How can we, who profess to be a Christian nation, turn our hearts against immigrants who have lived among us peacefully for years? We have looked the other way and allowed so-called illegals to settle among us and give us their labor. Now we turn against them. Where do we think a family will go that has lived here for 20 years? Why cannot we put ourselves in their shoes and consider alternatives? Would we want to be treated like this? (And don't tell me the treatment we are giving them is because they broke our laws. Without compassion are breaking God's laws.)

You too, bud! Unless you are

 Wed, 06/04/2008 - 02:46 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
You too, bud! Unless you are pure Sioux or Apache or Dakota or one of the other First Nations, your ancestors came over illegally, without the invitation of the original inhabitants. Would that all Europeans had "stayed and made changes in your own countries instead of coming over here and taking advantage of" this land and its natural resources.

A nation (government, that

 Wed, 06/04/2008 - 03:15 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
A nation (government, that is) that pursues an external policy of terror around the world must, of necessity, also pursue an internal policy of terror in all its forms . . . as always carried out against the weakest members of society. In this case it is the immigrants who continue to be deprived of human rights. These workers and poor are being used as the example whipping boys in order to demonstrate the ability of your government to spank anybody they choose. Is this not the same reason for the illegal invasion and destruction of the Iraqi state and its people? Let's not mention the total destruction of some of the most invaluable historical artifacts of the ancient world.

As the above comment by

 Wed, 06/04/2008 - 06:49 β€” antoine van gelder (not verified)
As the above comment by Anonymous titled 'Stop having children!! Run" clearly shows, this article is 100% accurate when it makes the statement: "something pragmatic and welcoming at the American core has been eclipsed, or is slipping away." - antoine

As long as money can flow

 Wed, 06/04/2008 - 09:25 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
As long as money can flow across borders in the crazy free trade agenda people should be just as free to cross borders. People are more important than money.

When you are done with

 Wed, 06/04/2008 - 12:12 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
When you are done with paying taxes to help support people who don't have to pay taxes and likewise do not have to do anything to become a citizen--such as learn the language--then you can think about how illegal immigration has impacted us. When you start getting TB and other exotic diseases because the people who have come here do not have the same ideas about medical treatment--think again about illegal immigration. Yes, there are some who are benefiting from having illegals come here...but they are the corporations who buy the votes from the democrats and republicans like McCain. If I were one of the elite, I too might want slave labor here. What would I care about the rest of the people losing jobs in America because I would be taken care of. This policy of allowing anybody and everybody into this country has to stop. If it will not stop, we will only end up just fighting each other and not paying attention to what our government is doing to us. But then again..maybe that is what they want us to do....

Anyone who says immigrants

 Wed, 06/04/2008 - 16:26 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
Anyone who says immigrants don't pay taxes has no idea what they're talking about. Have you seen a special gas pump for immigrants that excludes taxes? Do you know of any retailers who don't charge sales taxes to immigrants? Do you think immigrant workers don't have taxes, social security & income, withheld from their wages? Me neither. (And in the case of withheld taxes, unlike the rest of us, undocumenteds will never see a penny's worth of SocSec benefits that they've paid for.)

Wow. "When... this

 Wed, 06/04/2008 - 17:07 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
Wow. "When... this catastrophe happens, ... when that debacle occurs..." well, when a rock falls through my roof... Then, there are all the "go back where you came from" blather. Tell you what... everyone that cannot directly trace their ancestry to a Native American Nation -- get out now. Otherwise, you're nothing but a blaring hypocrite. Get out of MY yard, now... and while you're at it, get out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and about 50 other countries... And let's not even point out how pathetically you all follow the party line, including all the mis-statements of facts.

For an objective

 Wed, 06/04/2008 - 23:24 β€” BJ (not verified)
For an objective understanding of why immigration must be controlled go to youtube and watch "Immigration Gumballs". No one should talk about immigration without viewing this clip.

Mike: you worry that the

 Thu, 06/05/2008 - 01:08 β€” jpoverseas (not verified)
Mike: you worry that the "unassimilated progeny of third world immigrants make schools non-functional by Western standards." Sorry to break it to you, but American students are already at the bottom of the educational ladder among the "developed" nations, as shown by several recent studies. My grandfather grew up speaking German on a dairy farm in Newark NJ (!) and graduated from an Ivy League university. His story is today being repeated today by many progeny of immigrants, especially but hardly exclusively by children of immigrants from Asia. Remember the to-do about a quota for European Americans at Berkeley because the children of Asian immigrants were getting admitted by blind review in far greater proportion than their numbers in the state population? Randje: You say: "I belong to a construction union in the southwest, and the jobs I go on are always teeming with illegals, earning union wages with invalid social security numbers. ... they are working jobs that belong rightfully to Americans. And many American carpenter's wait for work while illegals collectively siphon off an impressive portion of the wages." I am puzzled at why the contractors would employ illegal workers, thus making themselves liable to (granted rarely enforced) criminal penalties and shouldering the burden of workers' limited language abilities, at the same rates as they would pay American citizens. If, as is very common, the illegals worked for less than citizens, employing them makes sense. Perhaps the point for the contractors is to weaken unions, as has been employers' government backed despicable practice for the past 30 years, by increasing the pool of labor they have available. I also find puzzling your widely repeated comment that these jobs are "rightfully American." Perhaps I'm ignorant, but the only law I know that makes a job rightfully American is the Constitution concerning the job of President and Vice-President. Natasha: G'd on ya, mate. I would add that Anonymous 23:48's comment about staying and making changes at home shows a profound but all too American ignorance of conditions in Mexico and on south. People working for labor, peasant, indigenous, and female justice in many of those countries are regularly killed, beaten, jailed, and otherwise silenced for their work. If I were unlucky enough to have been born in one of those places, I expect I'd take my chances in El Norte rather than throw myself on the tender mercies of the local oligarchs. I agree that we ought to act one for all and all for one. But as comments here and elsewhere suggest, for far too many people, who's in the all definitely ain't everyone. Anonymous 12:12: What a surprise! I had no idea the US had "This policy of allowing anybody and everybody into this country." Seems to me the Bushies magnanimously agreed to allow 1400 of the over 1 million Iraqis made refugees by their idiot war into the US, but could only find about 700 who were worthy. Seem to remember the computer folks lobbying for doubling the number of "worker shortage" visas they use to hire Indians and others at lower wages and worse conditions than their American counterparts. Seems to me there have recently been some PR heavy raids that deported lots of illegal immigrants but brought no charges against their American former employers. Seems to me one of us is way out of touch. You also worry, as did all previous anti-immigration waves, about "TB and other exotic diseases because the people who have come here do not have the same ideas about medical treatment." What are their ideas? Witch doctors? Leeching? Herbal potions? Massage? Acupuncture? Genital mutilation? Tattooing? Making offerings to God or the gods? How many of these dirty diseased folks have ever had access to an allopathic doctor? To what extent have we made allopathic medicine available to these folks once they are here--not to mention the shameful number of fellow citizens also cut off--so these dread diseases can be cured and controlled? And what are these "same ideas" we clean, healthy, disease free Americans have? I and everyone I know has found some "non-traditional" traditional medical treatment far more effective, less burdened by "side effects", and cheaper for some ailments than that on offer by allopathic medicine. Do my friends and I have "the same ideas" of medicine as you do? Maybe we're just not "real" Americans.

Please, all you so called

 Mon, 06/16/2008 - 05:53 β€” michael (not verified)
Please, all you so called american citizens. Look to the south to see how are neighbor defends their southern border from their neighbor south. With gunboats mounted with 50cal. machine guns and thousands of army troops. We, as Americans should at least have that much protection from Invasion at our border, to the south, with our neighbor. And as to the way too loose use of the word"immigrant"in referance to people who come from wherever who have not come legally into our country. Not as immigrants with permission and documents, but illegally snuck into our country. Therefore should be refered to as at least ILLEGAL ALIENS or if you are really paying attention, INVADERS. Fix Mexico Don't Break AMERICA.

Corporations own this

 Tue, 07/01/2008 - 21:56 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
Corporations own this country because they own our supposed representatives in Congress. Corporations love the illegals because they are slave labor. If they could get away without paying them at all I'm sure that's what they would do. I was appalled when bush cut family planning money from 3rd world nations. Why does the earth need wall to wall people who have nothing? In California, we probably have 20 million illegals. You can't go anywhere without seeing graffetti on everything. The road sides that used to be attractive are totally litered with trash. Our schools are non functioning. Calif. used to have schools in the top 5 in the nation and are now down at the bottom. Our roads are bumper to bumper waisting all too much energy and prooductive time. Illegals have huge families that they cannot afford so they dump their children on the taxpayers. Shame on Congress for allowing California to become a 3rd world entity!!!