Recently, I read an interesting article in which the writer commented that our politicians and media could make \u201ca cultural issue of a bologna sandwich.\u201d The words struck me as an apt expression to describe the politics of immigration from almost the founding of our republic.<\/p>\n
Shortly after Biden won and began outlining plans for immigration reform, I got a note from a Republican friend asking me if I was ready for an \u201copen border\u201d during the pandemic. It was, of course, a pointed political remark suggesting that the weak-kneed Democrats were going to make a mess of immigration policy again. After all, anyone with an ounce of sense knows that hard line border restrictions work best.<\/p>\n
Recently, we experienced Trump\u2019s obsession with building a wall to keep out Mexicans and migrants from Central America. This, of course, was immensely popular with xenophobes and today\u2019s nativists. From the beginning, immigrant bashing has always been a sure-fire way to attract a political following.<\/p>\n
This really becomes amusing when you think about the fact that virtually all Americans are the product of migration from someplace else. My great-grandparents came here from Germany and Austria; where\u2019s your family from?<\/p>\n
The whole question about immigration is more than a bologna sandwich, of course, but it is undeniable that it is treated as such by political parties for political gain. Republicans want tight borders, Democrats want less restrictive borders, and the Libertarians want no borders! The point here is that none of the players will work together for policies that recognize the reality of the southern border or the reality of \u201cthe possible.\u201d Potential immigrants will continue to come to the United States and we must form a consensus on how to respond.<\/p>\n
Even a cursory reading of U. S. history reveals the sordid political nature of the immigration debate going all the way back to the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. The Naturalization Act of that year raised the residency requirements from five to 14 years for citizenship and empowered the president to imprison and deport non-citizens. Passed by the last Federalist president, John Adams, it was a partisan act to stem the tide of recent immigrants who tended to vote for the opposing party, the newly emerging Democratic-Republicans.<\/p>\n
A quick review of immigration laws and programs shows increased restrictions beginning in 1875 when some states passed their own laws, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, the Literacy Act of 1917, the immigration acts in 1921 and 1924, the latter establishing the \u201cquota system\u201d which discriminated against southern and eastern Europeans and the 1965 act which abolished national quotas as criteria for immigration. During much of this time the story was not pretty with politicians attacking immigrants and foreigners out of ignorance or fear. The Know Nothing Party of the 1850s, formally known as the \u201cNative American Party,\u201d railed against Catholics, Jews and anyone not descended from original colonists or settlers. There persisted a general belief that immigrants different from those of northern Europe and the British Isles could not be assimilated because of their cultural and language differences and lack of democratic traditions. At best these immigrants were given hyphenated names and at worst derogatorily called awful names, many of which prevailed well into the 20th century.<\/p>\n
These and other actions bring us to the Simpson-Mazzoli Act of 1986 signed by President Reagan that legalized undocumented immigrants who had arrived in the United States prior to 1982. Subsequent failure, however, to deal with continuing immigration, especially from Mexico, by both Democrats and Republicans, brings us to the most recent debacle of the Trump border wall and the demonizing of Mexicans as a group for political advantage with those who might be categorized as today\u2019s \u201cKnow Nothings.\u201d<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen what exactly the Biden presidency\u2019s policies on immigration will be, but one thing for sure is that the issue will bring forth venomous attacks and political in-fighting. Reality and \u201cthe possible\u201d will be put aside for political advantage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently, I read an interesting article in which the writer commented that our politicians and media could make \u201ca cultural issue of a bologna sandwich.\u201d The words struck me as an apt expression to describe the politics of immigration from almost the founding of our republic. Shortly after Biden won and began outlining plans for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"\n