Anti-Immigrant Politics

From early on in U.S. history through present times, a nativist reaction to immigration has fostered hostile politics. Still, while the debate over immigration remains politically charged, it is difficult to accurately surmise an individual's position on the issue based on party affiliation. Many liberals support greater restrictions for immigration while many conservatives do not. As the arguments over immigration heated up again, political observers acknowledged that the issue had indeed created strange bedfellows. Among those opposing freer immigration are Patrick J. Buchanan, the conservative commentator and former Republican presidential candidate; Dianne Feinstein, the liberal California Democrat; and her fellow liberal counterpart Barbara Jordan of Texas. Proponents of freer immigration include conservatives William Bennett, Jack Kemp, and Rudolph Giuliani; Robert Dornan, a gay-bashing California Republican; and Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who is openly homosexual.

Rather than trying to force-fit the dialogue on immigration into traditional categories of political party alliance, the topic ought to be understood in terms of the various immigration ideologies found among liberals and conservatives alike. For instance, free marketeers support immigration arguing that the free flow of people across national borders, like that of goods and capital, contributes to prosperity while on the other side of the issue, nativists oppose immigration policies that allow nonwhites to enter the United States because they dilute the whiteness of American culture. Conversely, civil rights and ethnic advocates oppose immigration policies that discriminate against people of color, insisting that such an approach to immigration is racist and a violation of human rights. Some environmentalists and population control advocates recommend strict limits on immigration to the United States because they contend that overpopulation places undue strain on natural resources; similarly, job protectionists believe that immigration contributes to income stagnation and takes work from unskilled Americans. Rounding out the field, anti-government libertarians oppose the call for a national identification card verifying citizenship status while antitax advocates reject proposals requiring employers to pay a tax on every foreign worker they sponsor. Overall, it is important to note that the political debate on immigration has been shaped by [Page 157]overt economic considerations. Whereas some commentators oppose immigration, arguing that U.S. citizens are adversely affected by job displacement as well as having their tax dollars spent on social services for so-called illegal aliens, others argue that the economy benefits from immigration.

In a democratic society, debate over public policy ought to engage competing points of view along with systematic appraisals of legislation. However, the most recent immigration law, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, passed by Congress in 1996, was influenced less by sound policy making and more by exaggerated political rhetoric that issued warnings that foreigners pose a threat to the American social and economic order.

Adverse societal reaction to immigrants is nothing new. Throughout U.S. history, many citizens have shunned immigrants, viewing them with contempt and suspicion, thus reinforcing social inequality, hostility, and discrimination. A clear example of anti-immigrant politics can be traced to the 1840s when manifest destiny inspired white Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) to uphold a racist ideology professing that they were an elite people chosen by God to cultivate and civilize the country. That pernicious version of nativism condemned immigrants as cultural, political, and economic threats to a WASP-dominated society. Such militant nativism reached a flash point in Philadelphia, where in 1844, members of the Native American Party unleashed their fury on Irish Catholics, sparking 3 days of violence known as the Kensington Riots in which the homes, schools, and churches of Irish immigrants were burned and razed.

...