Nevada echo- Immigration made America great: "nativism" and its consequences

We always have been a country of immigrants.  A Nevada point of view with quotes from The New York Times.

A prayer after leaving a tribute near Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Saturday. Forty-one people died there, the authorities said. Credit Cornell Tukiri for The New York Times

An echo opinion published in the Nevada Reno Gazette Journal newspaper, by Donne Levy

This opinion was published on February 14, 2019, weeks before the March 15, heinous murder of 50 innocent Muslims in Christchurch New Zealand. Tragically, the massacre was committed without provocation by an evil White Supremacist who referenced Donald Trump in his racist manifesto. "Americans need to understand and address the poisonous pipeline of extremism (and White Supremicism) that has emerged over the past several years, whose ultimate effects are impossible to quantify but clearly far too big to ignore," wrote Kevin Roose in the March 15, 2019 The New York Times.   (MaineWriter- the consequences of "nativism")

Nevada opinion:  America has been built on immigration ever since the first Europeans arrived and proceeded to seize the land from the Native Americans. We always have been a country of immigrants. Yet we have gone through periods of strong hostility toward immigration tinged heavily with racism. We are now in one of those periods.

A prejudicial reaction against immigrants called “nativism” has reared its ugly head throughout American history. For example, a mid-19th century common feature of newspaper want-ads for jobs ended with “Irish Need Not Apply.” In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act banning Chinese laborers from immigrating, in effect excluding an entire ethnic group from America. In 2016 a presidential candidate advocated banning an entire religion (Islam) from America.

In 1924, Congress passed a quota law permitting immigration from only two percent of the number of people of each nationality in the U.S. as of 1890. Previously, most immigrants were from Western Europe. Beginning around 1890, America experienced the “new immigration,” Italians with swarthy skin and Eastern European Jews. The law was designed to keep America white and Christian as much as possible.

In 1965, Congress destroyed the racist quota system with a law establishing immigration based on reuniting families and attracting skilled labor. President Lyndon Johnson signed the law at the Statue of Liberty. That basically was America’s immigration policy until the Trump era.

America must welcome immigrants because our nation's current population demographic is not sustainable without their valuable contribution to our economic growth

In discussing immigration, we must recognize its value. Our economy depends on immigrants. Undocumented immigrants pay about $11.5 billion in taxes a year and their payments help sustain Social Security as many do find employment. Without continued immigration to fill jobs, the economy would stagnate.

Yet Trump tries to reduce legal immigration of nonwhites. He capped refugee immigration at its lowest level since the Refugee Act of 1980. Hewants to destroy the Diversity Visa Program that encourages Asian and African immigration. He wants to deny immigration for extended families. Trump has said it himself that he wants immigration from Norway, not s---hole African countries.

With accusations about Mexican rapists, murderers and drug traffickers, Trump proposed a wall stretching thousands of miles trying to bring back the pre-1965 racist era. Yet no evidence exists that his wall makes America safer. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says that 80 to 90 percent of hard drugs enter through ports of entry, not the vast border. With the ability to build tunnels, a wall costing tens of billions is useless. Already with increased patrol, appropriate fencing and technology, illegal crossings have dropped by 90 percent since the year 2000.

Economically, we need immigration while creating a citizenship path for those brought here as children and the 11 million undocumented. However, if you want America as white as possible, support Trump.  (MaineWriter post script- But we already know that Caucasian Americans do not want to do the kinds of labor intense jobs, the ones we hire immigrants to do for us.)

Donne Levy is a former community college history instructor.