After decades of activism for immigration reform (the genuine variety), our side has made little progress in a key area. This is our general lack of moral outrage in making our case. Most certainly we have a lot to be outraged about, most specifically the ongoing sacrifice of traditional America to propitiate the false gods of multiculturalism and diversity. But sadly, we have trouble expressing our righteous indignation. And this truly is a problem in a country where moral concerns and emotion typically carry a great deal of weight.
The biggest reason for our moral timidity is intimidation. One way to describe it is the Wizard of Oz effect. A memorable scene in cinema was when Dorothy and her companions recoiled in awe and terror when the huge smoke-shrouded visage of the Wizard thundered “I am the mighty Oz!” But their dismay quickly subsided after their little dog Toto pulled back a curtain to reveal that the “wizard” was just a fraudulent little man pulling levers and blowing smoke.
Similarly, true immigration reformers often feel overawed by our opponents, who proclaim that they are mighty and moral. Vastly amplifying the power and spectacle of their message is a corporate mass media almost totally supportive of mass immigration. Adding to the intimidation is the elite social status of many immigration advocates. With their money and position, they can avoid the diversity they wish on others. Our opponents fall into several distinct categories, with some overlap from one to another.
Globalists: Many elite Americans are what the late Harvard historian Samuel Huntington called “transnationals,” people who have little if any allegiance to their native land. In his book, Who Are We?, Huntington observes, that “Less than four percent of the American people, these transnationals have little need for national loyalty, view national boundaries as obstacles that thankfully are vanishing, and see national governments as residues of the past whose only useful function now is to facilitate the elite’s global operations.”1
Unrestricted migration is a key tenet of the globalist faith, and no one promotes it more zealously than multi-billionaire currency speculator George Soros. This naturalized American makes no secret of his high self-regard, and once proclaimed that “I’m larger than life. Invisible, benevolent, all seeing. The world very much needs a conscience. I want my foundation network to be the conscience of the world.”2 As with many globalists, his notion of “conscience” bears little empathy for the hopes and dreams of ordinary citizens who want to preserve the character and heritage of their homelands.
Leftists: The far left has always viewed mass immigration as a means to destabilize American society as a prelude for advancing revolutionary change. William Hawkins’ book Importing Revolution ably exposed the networks of the left devoted to this strategy.3 Radical leftists in their “politically correct” incarnation despise traditional America and see immigration as an effective way to destroy it. They typically divert attention from their malice by accusing their opponents of “hate.”
Moderate leftists may not share this antagonism, but many of them too see advantage from mass immigration, specifically as outlined by top Democratic Party strategist Robert Creamer. In his book, How Progressives Can Win, Creamer explicitly proposes to use immigrants, including amnestied illegal aliens, to build a powerful pro-democratic voting bloc.4 In effect, he advocates importing a new electorate to displace native-born American voters.
Supremacists: Typically these are Hispanic activists who aim to build the ethnic clout of their group at the expense of other Americans. By undermining immigration law enforcement, they affirm in true supremacist fashion that the law should constrain some people but not them. Ironically, they style themselves as “civil rights” advocates. Even so, it’s hard to keep the lid on their real agenda. One of their prominent groups is the National Council of La Raza. That last word means “the Race.”
A prominent Latino supremacist is Jorge Ramos, an anchor for the Spanish-language network Univision and the author of The Latino Wave.5 In that book Ramos states that Hispanic immigrants need not assimilate to American cultural norms but should forge a common Latino identity. Some have described the book as a “Latino Mein Kampf.” It contains such supremacist gems as “while no fighting is taking place on the military or legal fronts, there is fighting going on culturally. It’s the Reconquest. Latinos are culturally reconquering lands that once were part of the Spanish empire....” Borrowing a page from the leftists, Ramos also practices projection by calling his opponents “racists.”
Business Interests. These are folks who style themselves as defenders of “free enterprise.” But their enterprise in promoting immigration for cheap labor is hardly free for taxpayers who have to pick up the tab for immigrants’ welfare. Fifty-one percent of immigrant-headed households receive benefits from at least one federal program, compared with 30 percent of households headed by U.S. natives.6 In this fashion taxpayers are subsidizing profits derived from cheap labor.
By depressing wages, immigration basically is a Robin Hood-in-reverse process, which takes from the poor and gives to the rich.7 The business interests have their stables of economists who proclaim that immigration enriches us all, but if that’s so then why have wage levels stagnated since mass immigration began, and why since then has the middle class significantly shrunk?8
The business lobby endlessly declares that we have a labor shortage which only immigration can alleviate—even as we have huge numbers of potential workers who are unemployed, semi-employed, and detached from the job market.9 And this plea for more workers continues as a revolution in automation is beginning to take off. Within the next two decades, as many as almost half the jobs now done by people in the U.S. will be done by machines and computers.10 Incredibly, corporate spokesmen claim we have a shortage of qualified tech workers, even as companies like Disney fire qualified Americans and replace them with lower-wage foreigners.11 Truly, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that greed is the primarily motives of the business lobby to push for mass immigration.
Sentimentalists. Not all immigration enthusiasts have overtly evil motives. Probably the majority believe that they are simply offering generosity to the poor and downtrodden of the world. Truly they are sincere, but they are sincerely wrong when they imagine that the U.S. can do much to alleviate world poverty with an open door. The harsh reality is that world population grows by around 80 million a year.12 Just one year of that level of immigration obviously would sink the U.S.
Unfortunately, for committed sentimentalists, realities must never intrude on the moralistic euphoria they derive from their supposed virtue. But is ignoring consequences in the real world really virtuous? More likely, it is gross irresponsibility and indeed selfishness. Emoting about the Statue of Liberty and Huddled Masses is no substitute for responsible thinking.
So, what can we say about this rogues gallery of mass immigration advocates? Certainly, their character and motives call for the deepest disdain. Samuel Huntington was too charitable when he described the globalists as “transnationals.” Much more accurate terms are “traitor” and “subversive.” The left-wing radicals are not humanitarians, as they claim, but totalitarians bent on seizing power. The supremacists are not civil rights activists, as they allege, but seedy race hustlers. The business interests may boast of enterprise, even as their real bottom line is ill-gained profit. As for the extreme sentimentalists, their character is all too similar to an addict who seeks a “high” in reckless disregard for duties and responsibilities.
One activity they all share in common is lying. Time and again, they have lied to advance their political goals. An outstanding example was their claim that the 1965 immigration act would not lead to drastic change in the country’s ethnic makeup and an annual flow of one million legal immigrants—which is precisely what happened. Another was the broken promise that the first amnesty for illegal aliens in 1986 would be the last and that effective measures against illegal immigration would follow. More recently, President Obama promised that he had no authority to proclaim amnesty for illegal aliens—and then tried to do it anyway.
Outrage is the proper
response to the base motives and deceit of the mass immigration factions, but
they and their media are most effective in diffusing that outrage. Commonly
they neutralize it with their magic bully words: racist, bigot, xenophobe, etc.
Indeed, the Mighty Oz was an amateur manipulator compared with these wizards.
Nevertheless, the spell of intimidation can be broken the same way it was in
the movie. Simply ignore the words, pull back the deceptive curtain, and behold
the fraud and moral squalor. Do this, and righteous anger most naturally will
follow.
Endnotes
1. https://www.amazon.com/Who-Are-We-Challenges-Americas/dp/0684870541 p. 268.
2. https://romanticpoet.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/george-soros-billionaire-i-fancied-myself-as-some-kind-of-god-or-an-economic-reformer-like-keynes/
3. https://www.amazon.com/Importing-Revolution-Borders-Radical-Agenda/dp/0936247150
4. https://www.amazon.com/Listen-Your-Mother-Straight-Progressives/dp/0979585295
5. https://www.amazon.com/Latino-Wave-Hispanics-Transforming-Politics/dp/0060572027
6. http://cis.org/Welfare-Use-Immigrant-Native-Households
7. http://cis.org/NAS-Study-Workers-and-Taxpayers-Lose-Businesses-Benefit
8. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/10/09/for-most-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/ and http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/12/09/the-american-middle-class-is-losing-ground/
9. http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS13327709
10. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/519241/report-suggests-nearly-half-of-us-jobs-are-vulnerable-to-computerization/
11. http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2016/03/displaced-american-stem-workers-spur-senate-hearing
12. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-mashegoane/population-explosion_b_9837278.html