Commentary: In a nation of immigrants few things are more absurd than immigration policies driven by xenophobia and bigotry. Espousing systemic falsehoods from entities masquerading as news media outlets conservative politicians have weaponized fear. Using fear as a tool, conservative politicians can influence support for policies that are often against the best interests of the people who supported them, ultimately undermining our core values as Americans. By embracing humans’ natural fear of the unknown and those that are different from them, a sort of tribalistic mentality, the conservative strategists easily deceived the socially ignorant because they’re eager to embrace false information that supports their biases.
I can tell you having worked and studied in Criminal Justice for years far fewer than 1% of criminal cases are perpetrated by immigrants, that is an indisputable fact, it is verifiable as facts tend to be. Compare that statistic respectively to the percentage of undocumented immigrants that have a positive impact in their community and the country in general. Most undocumented immigrants are hardworking and gracious people but beyond that; many are volunteers, students, nurses, and other occupations that we rely on. Immigrants contribute hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the U.S. economy by working hard jobs for low pay that most Americans don’t want to work, they buy goods and services, and they pay taxes. Nearly all Dreamers will live here for years and years without any negative contact with law enforcement and current laws on the books allow for these people to be deported if they commit certain felonies. To search the communities and extract law abiding undocumented immigrants from their families, their homes, and their neighbors such as you and me is beyond tragic. Every American city should be a sanctuary city because in the end we are nearly all descendants of immigrants, many of whom faced nationalist opposition when they came from their country of origin; for example the opposition to Chinese and Irish immigrants in the 1800’s and early 1900’s, yet if it were not for them the First Transcontinental Railroad would not have been completed when it was uniting the East and West Coasts of the United States.
Most Republican politicians know that immigrants aren’t the national threat they make them out to be, they simply use that implication to get votes because that is the result of the successful weaponization of fear. Running on the Fear Platform gets them elected into office and allows them to work on their real agenda. Ultimately their goal is cut government spending, in particular assistance programs, to afford tax cuts for the wealthy (including themselves) as well as large corporations that contribute millions of dollars on their campaigns and foundations of questionable repute. The new tax plan the Republicans passed begins that process, recently Paul Ryan offered a glimpse into the utopian future for conservative politicians by announcing their intent to reduce “healthcare entitlements”, specifically speaking about Medicare. At the forefront of the government shutdown the Republicans are using the Children’s Health Insurance Program as a bargaining chip to pass their budget. Congress has already agreed upon a bipartisan measure to fund CHIP but the lack of protections for Dreamers is causing the hold up because Democrats are refusing to relent to the Republican hostage tactic, a method they use every time Congress needs to pass a budget.
If we allow the metastasizing of xenophobic ideologies and the affirmation of false beliefs regarding immigration then we are allowing the very ideals this country stands for to be trampled on by those who are gleefully unencumbered by facts or truth. We must stand firm for the rights of others and shelter them from the wrongs that would befall them at the hands of the hoards of fearmongerers who are blind to their humanity and true worth.