The “Day Without Immigrants” and Nuestro Himno, the Spanish-language version of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” have prompted lots of gum flapping about whether these gestures would actually reduce support for a more lenient policy on illegal immigration. It’s an open question. Less widely discussed, though, is whether the nastier manifestations of anti-illegal sentiment might backfire as well.
Take the musings of “Vortex360,” who offered this anti-illegal diatribe on a South Bend (Indiana) Tribune messageboard earlier this month: “It is amazing the way these illegals have invaded the country, much like rats, roaches, and other vermin. It is very clear that these people need to be eliminated from our society.” Hold on, now, because Vortex360 is just getting started. “What can one do? I treat them like the vermin they are and despise the rotten scoundrels. The illegals must realize that there are people watching them, hating them, and waiting for an opportunity to take action against them.... I always tell my boys, ‘If you get a chance to really bully and belittle those little illegal kids at school, do it and you’ll feel better for helping your country.’ ”
Good stuff, Superdad! Of course, it isn’t just anonymous Internet users who’ve been going overboard. Last month, Glen Beck — a syndicated conservative radio host and CNN employee — offered this tripartite theory about why illegal immigrants leave Mexico for the US: “One, they’re terrorists; two, they’re escaping the law; or three, they’re hungry. They can’t make a living in their own dirt-bag country.” And then there’s Mr. Old South himself, Mississippi senator Trent Lott, who tried to get people in a lather with a letter he sent to constituents last year. (“Many illegal immigrants don’t see America through some bright prism as a fertile crossroads, but see us through sinister cross hairs,” the good senator warned.)
If you’re a sober conservative — or liberal, for that matter — trying to make a reasoned anti-illegal-immigration argument, the last thing you need is Lott or Beck or Vortex360 making your side look ridiculous. But it’s probably unavoidable. When anti-Catholic sentiment was really rocking in the early-to-mid-19th century, for example, the big beef with “papists” was that they were bringing their freaky customs to American soil and refusing to be assimilated. (Sound familiar?) If anything, anti-immigrant vitriol was even stronger back then — witness the 1834 burning of Charlestown’s Ursuline Convent. (Today, people just call up and bitch to Howie Carr.)
Nativism: it’s as American as apple pie!
