Saying “no” to fear mongering
Friday, October 26th, 2007
By Rob Schofield
North Carolinians need to keep their heads when it comes to immigration
By Rob Schofield
Recently, the North Carolina Justice Center sent out its weekly on-line newsletter, NC Justice News. Among other things, the newsletter featured four very brief articles about current policy issues. One article contained a critique of recent efforts to use local sheriffs’ offices to enforce federal immigration laws. The piece made the following common sense points:
Racial profiling– The proposal would allow law enforcement agencies to check the immigration status of any “foreign person” they arrest. This harkens back to the day when it was acceptable for police to stop and question any “suspicious-looking person,” which was code for black.
Erosion of community trust– Even immigrants in the country legally will hesitate to call police with important tips or to report crime if this proposal becomes reality.
Legal complexities– Any attorney will tell you, immigration law is complicated. Properly implementing such a program will require extensive training and oversight. Is this really the best use of communities’ resources?
Soon after sending out the email, the organization received the following reply from State Representative Larry Brown:
“Illegal Immigrants have NO rights here. Let them come in legally like other cultures do. Larry Brown”
While we’ll give Rep. Brown the benefit of the doubt – surely he didn’t mean that the people he characterizes as “illegal immigrants” have no rights at all – his retort clearly revealed a degree of emotion and hostility that seems to be bubbling up in a lot of places lately.
Last summer, Brown’s House colleague George Cleveland, made this statement in regard to a proposal to he had floated to enact a new tax on wire transfers by undocumented immigrants:
"We have been illegal-alien friendly within the last 10 to 15 years. It’s killing us … We have to get the message out that this is not the state to come to and hopefully encourage those that are here to go elsewhere, preferably back home."
Cleveland went on to explain how wire transmitters would know who to ask for proof of citizenship:
"Anyone working in a Western Union I would hope has enough common sense to be able to discern who they should question and who they shouldn’t… If a fella comes in with a pair of shaggy boots on, and jeans and a t-shirt, and he’s got a straw hat on? I mean, come on! Give me a break!"
“Think” tank jingoism
Some of this narrow-minded nonsense is, in a way, understandable, if not acceptable. Whenever cultures experience rapid population influxes, it’s common for some people – even elected officials on occasion – to feel fearful and emotional and to express their feelings in ignorant, or even racist, ways.
What’s less understandable, however, is when such emotional or thinly veiled appeals to people’s baser instincts come from supposedly serious organizations that purport to offer thoughtful analysis and commentary.
For an example of this latter and more troubling brand of nativism, pick up a copy of the Fall 2007 edition of the Conservative Citizen magazine from the J.W. Pope Civitas Institute (there doesn’t appear to be an online version, but you can request a cope here).
In what is no doubt a sneak preview of the Republican Party’s 2008 election strategy (Jack Hawke, the Civitas head, is the former state Republican leader and usually casts his supposedly non-partisan group’s polls in terms of what they mean for the prospects of Republicans and what he invariably refers to as the “Democrat Party”), the magazine features a pair of articles devoted to complaining about and /or demonizing what the group regularly refers to as “illegals.”
The first features a color photo of a dozen or so hooded and faceless farmworkers and is entitled “Are Politicians Making North Carolina a Haven for Illegal Immigrants?” The thrust of the article is that people who immigrate to America without proper documents will, by virtue of this original sin of lawlessness, transform America’s “identity.” This is because, according to the article, “the two most important facets” of the American identity are “respect for the law and the English language.”
The second piece is entitled “Drugs, Gangs and Crime” and features the color mug shots and description of three Latino men under the caption: “Drug Dealing – Second Degree Murder – Rape & Kidnapping: Examples of Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants.” Here is an excerpt:
“In addition to drug trafficking and identity theft, illegal aliens also have higher rates of drunk driving and may have higher rates of sexual deviancy.”
To support his first claim, the author cites a statement from a public safety campaign by the group El Pueblo which attempted to reduce unsafe driving in the Hispanic community. According to the author, El Pueblo is a “radical Hispanic advocacy group.” Check out the group’s mission and core values to see if they strike you as “radical.”
To support his claim about “sexual deviancy,” the author simply provides secondhand figures of what he describes as “illegal immigrant sex offenders” and “foreign nationals who commit sex crimes against children.” Nowhere does he provide any context, comparisons to population size, or any other relevant data that might allow the reader to determine the veracity of his claim about “higher rates of sexual deviancy” (or a definition of “sexual deviancy” for that matter – God only knows what that would look like).
Reality Check
Immigration is a tremendously complicated issue that is proving vexing to governments throughout the world in the 21st century. The combination of modern communication and transportation in tandem with the demise of numerous trade and economic barriers, a fast growing population, armed conflict, climate changes and vast wealth disparities – just to name some of the factors – has provided an powerful incentive for millions of humans to pull up stakes in search of a better life (or in many cases, simple survival)..
Here in the U.S. and in North Carolina the immigrant influx clearly offers significant challenges – both for natives as they struggle to cope with the rapid changes to their communities and the immigrants themselves as they attempt to assimilate into our fast paced society.
But the immigrant influx also offers enormous opportunity as well. Recently, Dr. James Johnson, Jr., a William Kenan Rand, Jr. distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, spoke to a group of community leaders in Salisbury about his research on the immigration issue for the Kenan Institute for Private Enterprise. His remarks are well worth remembering during this period of pre-election year fear mongering.
According to Johnson, the economic contributions of immigrants to our economy outweigh the costs they impose on the public treasury by a factor of more than 150 to one. “Do the math,” said Johnson. Given the rapid aging of our population, the ongoing influx of relatively young Hispanic people will prove absolutely essential. “We have a succession problem in America,” he said. “We’re going to need labor, ladies and gentlemen.”
In sum, Johnson’s point is that whether all North Carolinians like it or not, Hispanic immigrants are absolutely essential to our state’s long-term economic and fiscal well-being.
Given the realities of demographics, we really have only two choices: 1) Get on with the business of making the necessary influx as smooth as possible by dramatically increasing legal immigration and investing the necessary resources to rapidly educate and assimilate the newcomers or, 2) Bury our heads in the sand while deferring to nativists who trumpet imaginary solutions like giant walls and mass deportations.
Going Forward
In the months to come, it seems inevitable that many politicians and narrow-minded voices will do their worst to play to the fears and lowest instincts of North Carolinians. In such times, it will be essential for voices of reason, compassion and common sense to stand up and speak truth to fear mongering.
Last 5 posts in Radical Right Reality Check
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- Taking back the debate - July 25th, 2008
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- Mistaking the avoidance of responsibility for “freedom” - June 7th, 2008
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