THE REPUBLICAN HOAX

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (4/25/12)


The Republican hoax about being overwhelmed by illegal immigration is now being exposed. A made-up problem, it was designed to frighten.


Illegal immigration has been declining for the past four or five years, not because of governmental action or harassment, but because of an economic collapse in the United States and an improving standard of living in Mexico. The number of illegal immigrants in the United States dropped by 8 percent between 2007 and 2009. Apprehensions of illegal immigrants by the Border Patrol have dropped 70 percent since 2000. The Republicans who drafted SB 1070 knew this. They manufactured a crisis.


Ironically, the anti-immigration policy has led to illegal immigrants remaining in the United States. Before all the hoopla, Mexican immigrants were flowing back and forth across the border, but now they are inclined to remain for fear of not being able to cross again.


Just like the East Germans and the ancient Chinese, we built a great wall, but it has failed because immigrants can fly over, dig under, or climb over a wall. Small minds have created a big problem. Like the war on drugs, it’s not working. Repression never works as a policy.


Schizophrenically, we ratified the North American Free Trade Agreement encouraging the free flow of goods across borders while we’ve been trying and failing to stop the free flow of labor. Any attempts to stop the debacle with a coherent immigration policy have been by blocked by the Republicans who seem to relish disasters.