Welcome to America THE IMMIGRATION BACKLASH
California's Proposition 187 was the tinderbox that set off the most recent anti- immigrant explosion in the United States. In that state's distinctive brand of right- wing populism, over four and a...
...The U.S...
...As in other areas of U.S...
...Nonetheless, politicians have been quick to seize on such folkmyths to promote an anti-immigrant, anti-poverty agenda that has gone straight for the jugular of the country's network of social protections...
...domestic policy, while the Republicans are making the more extreme proposals, the Democrats-fearful of alienating the country's supposed political "center"-are tripping over each other in their rush to the right as well...
...Ironically, the progressive response to the backlash has so far been muted...
...When they want the law enforced, they are called racist and xenophobic...
...Immigrants are being accused of taking jobs away from U.S...
...As Mike Davis points out in this issue, the social origins of Prop 187 can be traced to the white suburbs of Los Angeles...
...These waiters and waitresses, nannies, grape pickers, gardeners and flower vendors have become the scapegoats for the nation's woes...
...citizens, dragging down the economy, and abusing the welfare system...
...Since that election a year ago, copy-cat "Save Our State" (SOS) movements have sprung up in other parts of the country...
...In the increasingly globalized economy, U.S...
...The undocumented-totalling a miniscule 1.3% of the U.S...
...School teachers, nurses, social workers and police officers were all ordered to report to the authorities anyone they suspected of being undocumented...
...In any event, the first step for progressives is to know the social and economic forces that we are up against and to explode the myths...
...More likely, they know that as long as the gulf between North and South remains wide, immigrants will keep coming to the United States regardless of measures like Prop 187...
...Ironically, the bedrock of support for anti-immigrant measures comes from people who have the disposable income to spend on the personal services that undocumented labor provides...
...Resentment towards undocumented immigrants has been transmuted into a presumed prerogative to slash legal immigration by a third and refugee admissions by half, and to deny welfare, Medicaid and food stamps to legal immigrants...
...Perhaps these people are so blinded by racism that they don't realize that they are harming their own interests...
...Rising middle-class insecurity has dovetailed with the increased presence of immigrant minorities in the United States, especially in its big cities...
...Many Puerto Ricans, African Americans and more established Latinos worry that new immigrants may be competing for their jobs and driving wages down...
...population-have been singled out for attack...
...Families in these communities, like others across the United States, have been buffeted by economic forces beyond their control...
...We hope this report points the way...
...In that state's distinctive brand of right- wing populism, over four and a half million Californians-59% of the electorate-voted to deprive undocumented immigrants of the right to medical care and education...
...companies nationwide have become leaner and meaner in order to remain competitive...
...The American people are fed up," says Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson, the architect of that chamber's principal anti-immigration bill, casting himself as an innocent servant of the people...
...As several articles in this report point out, these arguments do not hold up under scrutiny...
...Congress has jumped on the anti-immigrant bandwagon...
...Unionized jobs that guaranteed job security and social benefits at places like General Motors and Boeing are rapidly disappearing...
...The roots of the backlash are essentially twofold: economic uncertainty, and uneasiness about the country's changing demographics...
...The loudest opposition has come from high-technology manufacturers such as Microsoft and Intel who worry that the anti-immigration measures will restrict their freedom to hire foreign workers for jobs in the United States...
...The maze of bills currently before Congress reflects the depth and breadth of the immigration backlash...
...Others debate strategy-whether to participate in street protests, get-out-the-vote drives, or lobbying...
...The end of the Cold War put a dagger through California's huge military-industrial complex...
...Denying social services to these immigrants will only make them more vulnerable and, consequently, cheaper...
Vol. 29 • November 1995 • No. 3
