Climate of fear, hate makes immigrants villains

Roberto Rodriguez of the Capital Times puts the issue of illegal immigration into perspective. Rodriguez points to America’s (U.S.A.) history of bigotry to show a pattern of “xenophobia and scapegoat politics.”

Is anyone old enough to remember the expression “Go back to Africa”?Can anyone remember when the lynchings of blacks and Asians and the hunting down of American Indians and Mexicans were commonplace? Does anyone remember when Jews — during the time of the Holocaust — were turned away at this nation’s borders? How about the Chinese Exclusion Act? Can anyone remember when the Irish, Germans and Italians were not welcome here?

His satirical essay points fun at the over reactions of todays U.S. citizen, and the ridiculousness of their claims towards “illegal immigrants” in this country.

I had not been aware
that illegal immigrants were the No. 1 threat to the security of
the most powerful nation on Earth and the cause of the majority of
the nation’s many problems.

He goes on to point out the ease with which Americans manipulated into a political frenzy based on bogus facts.

All we seem to need is for someone to
whip up the frenzy to permit the immoral discrimination against and
segregation of human beings and to permit the mass incarceration of
Japanese-American citizens or to conduct an Operation Wetback to
send Mexican-American citizens “back to where they came from.”

His critique on the need and ease with which immigrants are accused is spot on. Persecuting, blaming and attacking someone who has no means of defending themselves is absolutely the easiest thing to do. It is what cowards and the weak do, because they cannot abuse the powerful, they prey on the weak.

This time around, illegal immigrants are the
target. They can’t fight back or vote or even protest in public.
And technically, they don’t have a face. All the vitriol can be
hurled against them without feeling guilty

Not only does Rodriguez point out the bigotry rampant in this nation, but he backs up his disdain for the ignorance that fuels this bigotry by presenting the facts.

If the United States
were to put up a 2,000-mile wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and
if the 12 million nannies, busboys, gardeners and maids were
deported, would the illegal and immoral war in Iraq immediately
come to a halt?

If undocumented workers were deported, would
gas prices go down, would it compel U.S. corporations to
immediately institute a living wage for all workers, and would
Congress pass universal health care overnight?

a recent
study by the Washington-based Immigration Policy Center found that
immigrants are much less likely to be imprisoned than U.S.-born
residents of the same ethnicity. Another study, by the Public
Policy Institute of California, has shown that immigrants are more
likely to push up wages than depress them.

But who listens to facts anymore?

Read the rest of this article here.