What’s the Immigration Debate All About Anyway?

Dan Walters received interesting responses to a recent colum in the Sacramento Bee:

“Thousands of columns have appeared in this space over the last 23 years, but none has received more feedback — most of it negative — than a recent treatise on the vital role that illegal immigrants play in the California economy and the potentially heavy impact of a federal crackdown on their employers.

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The feedback came via e-mail, phone messages and a record 52 comments posted on The Bee’s Web site, some positive but the majority negative — not surprisingly, given the incendiary nature of the subject.

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There was a tinge of racism, or at least xenophobia, in many comments — a visceral resentment of what some see as an invasion by those from an alien culture who would alter America in undesirable ways.

“You and the open borders crowd won’t be happy until the flood of illegals turn this country into a Third World cesspool,” wrote one.

“The state is fast becoming Mexican supporting millions of lawbreakers who broke the law by crossing our borders…. You people make me and the majority Americans who love this country sick.”

“When there are no jobs for illegal aliens, they will either starve or return to their origins; either result will be fine,” wrote another.

Such comments should not be surprising.  They are all-too-common and can be heard virtually wherever immigration is discussed.  Even Fred Thompson refers to undocumented immigrants as “suicidal maniacs.”  But some of us remain troubled by the underside of the immigration debate.  And it is not lost on us what the immigration debate is really about.

KJ