by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n
Recently, in symbolic fashion, spectators of Mexican ancestry in Pasadena\u2019s Rose Bowl did not merely cheer on the Mexican national soccer team in a game against the US national team \u2014 such nostalgia would be natural and understandable for recent immigrants \u2014 but went much further and also jeered American players and, indeed, references to the United States.<\/p>\n
Which was the home team?<\/p>\n
Was America to be appreciated for accepting poor aliens, or resented for not granting them amnesty? Is the idea of the United States to be conveniently booed or opportunistically thanked \u2014 depending on whether you are watching a soccer match or, for example, entering a Los Angeles emergency room with a life-threatening injury?<\/p>\n
This otherwise insignificant but Orwellian incident reminds us that illegal immigration in the 21st century is becoming an illiberal enterprise.<\/p>\n
Consider the prevailing myth of Mexico as America\u2019s \u201cpartner.\u201d Aside from the violence and drug cartels, an alien from Mars who examined the relationship would instead characterize it as abusive. Close to a million Mexican nationals annually try to cross illegally into the United States, aided and abetted by a cash-strapped Mexico \u2014 in a fashion that the latter would never permit on its southern border with Guatemala. Indeed, if Guatemala had published an illustrated comic book instructing, in pictures, its presumably illiterate emigrants how to enter Mexico illegally \u2014 as Mexico actually did \u2014 the Mexican government would have been outraged. So is the surreal logic of Mexico City summed up by something like, \u201cWe value our own people so much that we will help them break laws to go elsewhere\u201d?<\/p>\n
In the old immigration narrative of the 1960s and 1970s, affluent, profit-minded white American employers often exploited cheap workers from Mexico. But that matrix has been largely superseded. So-called whites are no longer a majority in California, where large Asian and African-American populations often object to illegal arrivals from Mexico who cut in front of the legal-immigration line, tax social services, and raise costs to the detriment of American citizens.<\/p>\n
Even the notions of \u201cwhite\u201d and \u201cLatino\u201d are becoming problematic in today\u2019s intermarried and interracial society. Does one-quarter or one-half ethnic ancestry make one a member of the \u201cminority\u201d community? And, if so, by what logic and under which convenient conditions? For the purposes of hiring or college admission, should we apply one-drop rules from the Old Confederacy to measure our racial purity?<\/p>\n
Poverty is no longer so clearly delineated either. In an underground economy where wages are often in cash and tax-free, and entitlements are easier than ever to obtain, well over $20 billion a year in remittances are sent southward to Mexico alone \u2014 maybe double that sum to Latin America as a whole.<\/p>\n
Something here once again has proven illiberal: Does a liberal-sounding but exploitative Mexican government cynically encourage its expatriates to scrimp and save in America only to send huge sums of money back home to help poor relatives, so that Mexico City need not? In turn, do an increasing number of illegal aliens count on help from the American taxpayer for food, housing, legal, and education subsidies in order to free up $20 billion to send home?<\/p>\n
The paradoxes and confusion never end these days. Do today\u2019s immigration activists work to grant amnesty on the basis of a legal philosophy and principled support for open borders, or just because of shared ethnic identity? If there were now 11 million East Africans in America illegally, would today\u2019s Hispanic immigration lobbyists seek amnesty, bilingual services in Swahili, and yet more illegal immigration from Kenya and Uganda? Would they ever seek racially blind legal immigration into the US, based on education and skills rather than point of origin?<\/p>\n
The yearly arrival of hundreds of thousands from Latin America, mostly without English-language skills, high-school diplomas, or legality, has also challenged old ideas of everything from the assessment of US poverty rates to affirmative action. Once an impoverished resident of Oaxaca crosses the border, does his lack of education and his modest income immediately help cement the charge that the American Latino population has not achieved economic parity?<\/p>\n
Or, in the first nanosecond after illegally crossing the border, do a Mexican national and his family in theory become eligible for affirmative action, on the basis of past historical underrepresentation or present-day discrimination or poor treatment in Mexico \u2014 in a way not extended to the Arab-American or Punjabi-American citizen?<\/p>\n
Why does the present administration oppose new anti-illegal-immigration laws in Arizona and Georgia that are designed to enhance existing federal law \u2014 but not so-called \u201csanctuary city\u201d statutes that in some municipalities deliberately contravene federal immigration law?<\/p>\n
The old liberal ideal of a racially blind, melting-pot society where the law is applied equally across the board has descended into the new postmodern practice of enforcing many laws only selectively \u2014 and based entirely on politics, matters of race, ethnic chauvinism, and national origin.<\/p>\n
In sum, yesterday\u2019s immigration liberals have become today\u2019s illiberals.<\/p>\n
\u00a92011 Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Recently, in symbolic fashion, spectators of Mexican ancestry in Pasadena\u2019s Rose Bowl did not merely cheer on the Mexican national soccer team in a game against the US national team \u2014 such nostalgia would be natural and understandable for recent immigrants \u2014 but went much further and also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[111],"tags":[620,327,268,1031,128,387,1059],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-EW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3756,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/rethinking-illegal-immigration\/","url_meta":{"origin":2538,"position":0},"title":"Rethinking Illegal Immigration","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Now that the bitter election season is over, both parties will have to return to the explosive issue of illegal immigration. Increased border patrol, a 700-mile fence to stop the easiest access routes (something President Bush signed into law two weeks ago), employer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "November 2006"","block_context":{"text":"November 2006","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2006\/november-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8628,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/how-illegal-immigration-finally-turned-off-the-public\/","url_meta":{"origin":2538,"position":1},"title":"How Illegal Immigration Finally Turned Off the Public","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 31, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"If there were not a Donald Trump, he would likely have had to have been invented.\u00a0 by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ PJ Media Why did the illegal-immigration issue launch Donald Trump\u2019s campaign? Why did his recent tense press conference exchange with Univision\u2019s Jorge Ramos please even some of Trump\u2019s liberal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Shot and chaser: Democrat activist Jorge Ramos of Univison badgers Donald Trump; is (temporarily) deported from presser by Trump\u00e2\u0080\u0099s security. (AP Photos\/Charlie Neibergall)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/trump_ramos_8-30-15-1-500x213.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2178,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/voting-present-on-illegal-immigration\/","url_meta":{"origin":2538,"position":2},"title":"Voting Present on Illegal Immigration","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Immigration activists and Hispanic groups are demanding that President Obama deliver on his promised comprehensive package of immigration reform. Already, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has derided federal sweeps of illegal aliens as \"un-American.\" And recently the Obama administration stripped the federal authority\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "November 2009"","block_context":{"text":"November 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/november-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1946,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-moral-dimensions-of-illegal-immigration\/","url_meta":{"origin":2538,"position":3},"title":"The Moral Dimensions of Illegal Immigration","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media The New Old Debate Over Illegal Immigration The debate over illegal immigration is mostly fossilized. We know the predictable contours. Despite different realities on the ground, they have not changed much from the 1960s. The narrative for half-a-century has gone something like this: a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Immigration"","block_context":{"text":"Immigration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/immigration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4115,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-manhattan-project-of-illegal-immigration\/","url_meta":{"origin":2538,"position":4},"title":"The Manhattan Project of Illegal Immigration","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Why do millions of Mexican nationals see America as racist, exploitative \u2014 and worth everything to get to and stay in? We all are familiar with the debates surrounding illegal immigration: absolute versus flexible laws; amnesty versus deportation or earned citizenship; closed versus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Immigration"","block_context":{"text":"Immigration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/immigration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3683,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/mexifornia-five-years-later\/","url_meta":{"origin":2538,"position":5},"title":"Mexifornia, Five Years Later","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The flood of illegal immigrants into California has made things worse than I foresaw. by Victor Davis Hanson City Journal\u00a0(Winter 2007 Issue) In the Spring 2002 issue of\u00a0City Journal, I wrote an essay about growing up in the central San Joaquin Valley and witnessing firsthand, especially over the last 20\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "February 2007"","block_context":{"text":"February 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/february-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2538"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2540,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538\/revisions\/2540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}