“A war here at home”: “Growing discrimination against Latinos and a surge of xenophobia unseen since the last big wave of immigration in the early 20th century”

In “Immigration debate gets angrier: Groups loudly press for state, local crackdowns,” Dave Montgomery of the McClatchy Washington Bureau, makes some sobering observations about the immigration debate after the demise of comprehensive immigration reform earlier this summer:

“Scores of organizations, ranging from mainstream to fringe groups, are marshaling forces in what former House Speaker Newt Gingrich calls ‘a war here at home’ against illegal immigration, which he says is as important as America’s conflicts being fought overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While most of the groups register legitimate, widespread concerns about the impact of illegal immigration on jobs, social services and national security, the intense rhetoric is generating fears of an emerging dark side, reflected in what appears to be growing discrimination against Latinos and a surge of xenophobia unseen since the last big wave of immigration in the early 20th century.

“I don’t think there’s been a time like this in our lifetime,” said Doris Meissner, a senior fellow with the Migration Policy Institute and former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. “Even though immigration is always unsettling and somewhat controversial, we haven’t had this kind of intensity and widespread, deep-seated anger for almost 100 years.”

The Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, said the number of “nativist extremist” organizations advocating against illegal immigration has grown from virtually zero just over five years ago to 144, including nine classified as hate groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan supremacists.

Eighty-three percent of immigrants from Mexico and 79 percent of immigrants from Central America believe there is growing discrimination against Latin American immigrants in the United States, according to a poll conducted by Miami-based Bendixen & Associates.”

(emphasis added).

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I am not sure that the current climate is all that extraordinary  — consider the nativist venom displayed in (1) the Proposition 187 campaign in 1994, which helped get California Govenore Pete Wilson re-elected, in California; (2)  1996 immigration reform directed at “criminal aliens”, “terrorists”, and immigrant benefit recipents; and (3) the days after September 11, 2001.  Still, the Montgomery article should remind us what truly is at stake in the debate over immigration reform.

KJ