by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n
W<\/span>hen I wrote\u00a0Mexifornia<\/i>\u00a0more than three years ago, much of the criticism came from the academic and open-borders left. The memoir was considered insensitive in our politically correct age for complaining that it was not wise or moral that millions were here illegally from Mexico.<\/p>\n But lately I have heard far more fault-finding with\u00a0Mexifornia<\/i>\u00a0from the grassroots middle and right, over both my advocacy for some sort of earned citizenship for most hardworking illegal aliens and my objections, on both practical and ethical grounds, to mass deportations.<\/p>\n Why the shift in public opinion?<\/p>\n Broad class considerations are now transcending particular party, racial and ethnic views of illegal immigration, pitting the well-off few against the less-fortunate many. Many of the more privileged Americans who frequent fancy restaurants, stay in hotels and depend on hired help for lawn and pool maintenance, home repair and childcare don’t think illegal immigration is that big of a deal.<\/p>\n Those in the higher-paid professions do not fear low-wage competition for their jobs in law, medicine, academia, the media, government or the arts. And many who have no problem with the present influx live in affluent communities with good schools insulated from the immediate budgetary consequences of meeting the needs of the offspring of the 11 million here illegally. These wealthier people aren’t so much liberal in their tolerance of illegal immigration as they are self-interested and cynical.<\/p>\n I<\/b>n contrast, the far more numerous poor and lower middle classes of America, especially in the Southwest, are sincerely worried \u2014 and angry. Indeed, it is no longer possible to caricature opponents of illegal immigration as part of a small nativist fringe.<\/p>\n For the broad middle class, the poor and minorities \u2014 people who dine mostly at home, travel infrequently, mow their own lawns and change their children’s diapers \u2014 inexpensive service labor is not seen as much of a boon to them. Plus, lower- and middle-class Americans live in communities where schools are more impacted by an influx of Spanish-only speakers. And as janitors, maids, groundskeepers, carpenters, factory workers and truckers, they fear competition from lower-wage illegal alien laborers. Legal immigrants who wait years in line to enter the United States legally can be particularly unsympathetic to others who cut in front \u2014 in violation of the law.<\/p>\n The public is also growing uneasy with three decades of multiculturalism while developing a new appreciation of the old multiracial melting pot. Other minorities don’t understand why the Latino immigrant community needs bilingual ballots and special government translation help.<\/p>\n Because the United States is increasingly less a majority of whites of European ancestry and more a mixture of dozens of races and ethnicities, the need for a common unifying language and culture has never been more important. When Americans look abroad at the violent messes in the Balkans, Rwanda, Darfur and Iraq, the notion of emphasizing separation here at home by race, tribe, language or religion makes absolutely no sense. But the idea of letting only enough legal immigrants in who can be easily assimilated surely does.<\/p>\n S<\/span>o how does this new popular worry over illegal immigration play out among a variety of working-class groups and minorities?<\/p>\n While there remains controversy over amnesty and a guest-worker program, there is now little disagreement over first enforcing the law and closing the borders \u2014 whether through periodic fortification, more Border Patrol officers, tough employer sanctions or viable identification cards.<\/p>\n In the last three years, while I haven’t changed my views about the need for an earned-citizenship program or the impracticality of deporting 11 million illegal residents, an angry public has passed\u00a0Mexifornia<\/i>\u00a0by. Once caricatured as illiberal for calling for an end to illegal immigration, the book now reads as middle of the road, if not pass\u00e9.<\/p>\n Indeed, if extremists continue to demonstrate for open borders, blare out ethnic and linguistic chauvinism, and flaunt the law, then this current public anger against illegal immigration will unfortunately appear mild in comparison to what is on the horizon.<\/p>\n \u00a92006 Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services When I wrote\u00a0Mexifornia\u00a0more than three years ago, much of the criticism came from the academic and open-borders left. The memoir was considered insensitive in our politically correct age for complaining that it was not wise or moral that millions were here illegally from Mexico.<\/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":[766],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-Z5","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3683,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/mexifornia-five-years-later\/","url_meta":{"origin":3787,"position":0},"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":[]},{"id":10566,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/10566-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":3787,"position":1},"title":"09\/12\/17 From An Angry Reader:\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"09\/12\/17 From An Angry Reader: Angry Reader Bob McCarthy For one who loves to cast aspersions on political incorrectness in the use of words, maybe you should 'splain to your readers your use of the term \"Mexifornia\" in decrying the Mexican \"takeover\" of California, as racist a piece as I've\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4798,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/el-norte\/","url_meta":{"origin":3787,"position":2},"title":"El Norte","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 19, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"The case against Bush's immigration plan. by Victor Davis Hanson WSJ Opinion Journal Online President Bush's recent proposal to grant legal status to thousands of Mexican citizens currently working in the U.S. under illegal auspices seems at first glance to be a good start--splitting the difference between open and closed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "January 2004"","block_context":{"text":"January 2004","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2004\/january-2004\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5374,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-future-with-europe\/","url_meta":{"origin":3787,"position":3},"title":"The Future with Europe","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Swiss newspaper\u00a0Junge Freiheit\u00a0interviews VDH Private Papers JF: Professor Hanson, you criticize U.S. immigration policy in your recent bookMexifornia. What is it that bothers you about the development at the Southern border? VDH: Many things. 1)We are wide open to terrorist infiltration; 2) We privilege illegal immigration from Mexico, while\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "February 2008"","block_context":{"text":"February 2008","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2008\/february-2008\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2563,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-philosophies-of-illegal-immigration\/","url_meta":{"origin":3787,"position":4},"title":"The Philosophies of Illegal Immigration","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media Dinosaur Thinking Even to talk of illegal immigration earns slurs. I can attest to that. It is the most self-censored topic in America today, where we construct artificial worlds of rhetoric that in no way resemble reality (e.g., try to suggest that California\u2019s current\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":2720,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/foreign-thoughts\/","url_meta":{"origin":3787,"position":5},"title":"Foreign Thoughts","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner Editor\u2019s Note: These passages are drawn from recent articles on\u00a0The Corner. Mexifornia, Quite Literally! \u201cI love this country, it has given me everything that I have, and I\u2019m proud to be part of it,\u201d said Victor Sanchez, a 37-year-old Monrovia resident wearing a Mexico\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Civilization"","block_context":{"text":"Civilization","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/civilization\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787"}],"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=3787"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3864,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787\/revisions\/3864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}