In today’s immigration news: Benjamin Franklin, immigration policies, and changing definitions of whiteness; Arizona’s confusing immigration politics and polls; more.
Today’s immigration debate has deep historic roots in the United States, and those roots are as racist as today’s rhetoric. From the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act to the overt racial and national origin exclusions and quotas of the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 to the present day, race has never been absent from U.S. immigration policies.
Racist opposition against immigration goes back beyond the beginning of the United States as a nation. In 1751, Benjamin Franklin wrote in opposition to German immigrants:
“Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our language or customs, any more than they can acquire our complexion?”
Donald Trump might be surprised to learn that his German immigrant paternal grandfather would have been considered non-White by Benjamin Franklin. So would two of his three wives.
By 1924, Germans were considered White, but not Italians, Greeks, Poles, or other non-Anglo Saxon immigrants.
“How America tried and failed to stay White” by Washington Post columnist Eduardo Porter traces the racist roots of U.S. immigration policy in the Johnson-Reed Act, the nation’s first comprehensive immigration legislation, and the continuing racism of debates over immigration.
[Washington Post] “Large numbers of migrants from Eastern and Southern Europe flocked to the United States during the first two decades of the 20th century, sparking a public outcry over unfamiliar intruders who lacked the Northern and Western European blood of previous migrant cohorts.
“On May 15, 1924, Congress passed the Johnson-Reed Act, which would constrain immigration into the United States to preserve, in [Sen. Ellison DuRant] Smith’s words, America’s ‘pure, unadulterated Anglo-Saxon stock.’ …
“Half of the foreign born today come from Latin America; about 3 in 10 from Asia. Fewer than 6 in 10 Americans today are White and not of Hispanic origin, down from nearly 9 in 10 in 1965. Hispanics account for about one-fifth of the population. African Americans make up nearly 14 percent; Asian Americans just over 6 percent.
“And some of the old arguments are back. In 2017, the Harvard economist George J. Borjas published a tome about foreigners’ impact on the United States, in which he updated the debate over migrant quality to the post-1965 era: Newer cohorts, mostly from Latin America and other countries in the Global South were, he said, worse than earlier migrants of European stock.”
And in other news
Poll results depend on how questions are worded and who is asking. A recent poll from Arizona shows high support for immigration reform and legal pathways to immigration.
[KTAR] “The survey from The Center for the Future of Arizona found that 77% of voters agree that comprehensive immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship is needed. Almost all Democrats — 92% — agree on the topic while 61% of Republicans are in favor of the reform. …
“Eighty-two percent of voters agree that political leaders need to find bipartisan solutions for what is considered a “humanitarian and refugee crisis,” according to the survey.
“Finally, almost all Arizona voters believe a more well-functioning border is necessary to improve not only immigration but commerce.”
An Arizona anti-immigrant bill ran into trouble in the Arizona Senate Republican caucus this week, with one senator insisting on language that would protect DACA recipients and focus narrowly on the border. Other Republican senators oppose narrowing the bill’s scope.
[Arizona Republic] “Republicans are trying to pass House Concurrent Resolution 2060 as a ballot measure for November’s general election following amendments tacked on last week. The Senate vote is now slated for May 22. If it passes, a vote will come up June 4 at the House of Representatives. …
“The Senate postponed a vote on the measure, citing the absence of a Republican senator whose vote remains crucial to reaching the 16 votes needed to pass the referral.
“But Republicans are also dealing with a series of proposed changes from Sen. Ken Bennett, R-Prescott, that might be a hard sell to some of the Senate’s hard-right conservatives.”
Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), wrote to the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, urging them to close private detention facilities in New Mexico, California, Louisiana and Virginia. Private, for-profit detention facilities fail over and over again to provide adequate medical care or humane conditions. Most migrants held in detention facilities have not been convicted of, or even charged with, any crime.
[Huffington Post] “’After reports of inhumane conditions, including sleep deprivation, dirty drinking water, and psychological trauma, independent watchdogs and other experts have recommended that the Biden administration close the worst of these facilities,’ Warren said. ‘This would be a meaningful step toward ending the federal government’s reliance on private detention centers.’ …
“All four detention centers listed in the letter faced accusations of human rights violations. Several Venezuelan detainees filed a class-action lawsuit last year alleging unsanitary conditions at the Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico and said they were denied medical care, access to working showers and adequate food. In Louisiana, detainees said the facilities were overcrowded and unsanitary. Similar abuses have rocked the detention centers in Virginia and California.”
Immigration news 