COMMENTARY:

Fortress America

While she struggles to keep gas in her Chevrolet Suburban, which she uses to ferry supplies to her small restaurant on a lake an hour north of Houston, Sandy K. lashes out at immigrants, whom she claims are a burden on local schools, hospitals, police and the welfare systems. She complains that they don't speak English or pay taxes and they fly Mexican flags.

Sandy K. is not alone. Across the country, groups such as California Coalition for Immigration Reform (CCIR) condemn immigrants. CCIR supports Border Patrol vigilante groups, calls for a "Mexican-American War II," and disparages "guest worker/amnesty scams." They demand that President Bush protect the U.S. border with troops, deport all "illegal aliens" and imprison those who "aid and abet" them.

Barbara Coe, founder of CCIR, calls President Bush "a traitor Republican" for his efforts to provide illegal immigrants with citizenship. Co-author of California Proposition 187, which denied public funds to illegal immigrants, Coe says, "Mexicans want to take over the entire country. Even little children are being taught to hate America and that we stole their land."

Backlash against immigrants is an old story in America that surfaces each time a new group washes up against the next older immigrant group. Xenophobic movements reacted against Irish, Jewish, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and other immigrants. Reactions are often driven by fear in unstable economic times, when immigrants are seen as a threat to wages and prosperity.

Coe of CCIR, for example, began her struggle against "illegal aliens" when a WWII veteran friend was denied SSI and Medicare, which she decided was due to budget restraints caused by services for immigrants. Ignoring Bush's huge tax cuts for the rich and for corporations, many other Americans also blame immigrants for a bad economy. A Washington Post/ABC poll last week found that 59 percent rank the economy as not good or poor. The price of gas is topping $3 a gallon and rising. The military aggression in Iraq is running $10 billion a month. No wonder Americans feel stressed out.

Over 30 million full-time workers have been laid off since 1984, and most of them took jobs at lesser wages. In 2000, 77 percent of women between the ages of 25 and 54 had to work to support their families, and income, when adjusted for inflation, is less than it was 30 years ago.

Meanwhile the rich grow richer. In California, for example, the top 20 percent enjoy a median family income of $127,564, while the poorest 20 percent report median income of $16,773. The richest increased their incomes by $42,000 since the late 1980s, while the poorest gained $1,700. Health care costs increase appreciably every year, along with gasoline and energy prices. It's difficult for working people to cope. Rather than cooperating with others to support common economic interests, Americans reject what Republicans call "class warfare," and turn against the poorest of the poor: illegal immigrants.

Fearful because immigration has risen 185 percent since 1992, the Republicans in the House of Representatives passed legislation making illegal immigration a crime requiring jail time and disqualification from seeking legal status in the future. A Berlin/Israeli-style fence would barricade the border, the number of guards would double, while the huge human toll in split families would be ignored. Although the Senate passed a less harsh version, the issue smacks of a calculated ploy by Karl Rove to divert the electorate's attention from the Bush administration's catastrophic occupations and nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Expect any immigration bill to be tabled or watered down so no one is satisfied. Republicans are fearful of losing support and will blame the unresolved issue on the Democrats. Don't expect a long-term solution to immigration because the issue drives a fundamental split in America. Immigration pits an America that accepts and welcomes immigrants—"give us your tired, your hungry, your poor, yearning to be free"—against a fearful American fortress mentality that feels threatened by the outside world.