There's something familiar about this national debate and battle royal over illegal immigration. The political atmosphere in which it's being conducted is enough to bring back the bad old days when the issue was civil rights. Back then, anybody who urged a little perspective, certainly in these latitudes, could expect to be denounced in no uncertain terms. Public discourse was conducted almost exclusively in slogans rather than thoughts. The favorite catch phrase was STATES' RIGHTS! And if that didn't end the argument, an epithet might suffice. George Wallace's favorite was Pointy-Headed Liberal.
I can remember being pointed out to an angry crowd, along with the rest of the press row, as a member of the Liberal Media Elite when the feisty little governor of Alabama came to Pine Bluff to campaign for president. He was addressing a raucous crowd in dusty Hestand Stadium at the time, and it was his idea of being funny.
That whole era was a grand opportunity for Southern demagogues of every style--from Lester (Ax-Handle) Maddox in Georgia to smoother sorts like Orval Faubus here in Arkansas, who played us like a fiddle election after election. At least till we finally wearied of his same old tune.
The catch phrase may be different now--ILLEGAL ALIENS!--but the invitation to demagoguery is proving just as irresistible to politicians on the make. They may not be doing much to solve the problem, but they recognize it's one they can use to win elections.
It's possible to build a career the same way outside politics, too. An ambitious newspaper columnist or television anchorman could use it to acquire a nationwide following. All he has to do is appeal to our deepest fears in the most authoritative tones. Today it helps to wave around the dreaded A-word: AMNESTY! CNN's Lou Dobbs tried it years ago, and his scare tactics attracted quite a following. For a while. Eventually his act got old, but now it's been picked up by others.
The obdurate reality behind all this fluff-'n'-feathers remains the same: Immigration legal and illegal will continue to grow as long as an advanced, continent-sized country--a land of opportunity hungry for labor--has a long, porous border to its south. And its Third World neighbors are full of desperate people eager to supply that labor. And who'll do almost anything to get here. Wouldn't you in their ragged shoes?
Combine human beings' capacity for hope with the natural operation of the market, and, one way or another, labor is going to flow where it can be employed. We may be able to slow the flow but not stop it. Like a flood, it can be dammed here and there, but eventually, as every hydrologist knows, water is going to go where it wants to go.
We are dealing with real demographic forces here that can't be argued out of existence, no matter how eloquent our demagogues. They can only exploit the problem, not make it go away. No one seriously expects that the 12 million illegal immigrants here, maybe more by now, are going to be rounded up and thrown out of the country. Just consider the consequences to the various sectors of the American economy that have come to depend on their labor: agriculture, construction, food processing, restaurants and hotels, furniture manufacturing, landscaping . . . you name it.
Then consider the additional stress such a roundup would place on already strained law enforcement, and mass deportations just aren't a practical possibility. And all that doesn't take into account the burden that breaking up families now rooted here would place on our conscience. And should.
The practical question is: What are we going to do about a growing political, economic and moral question that has been studiously neglected year after year? Are we going to deal with it at last, or just keep ignoring it? And for how long?
An Army story: Going through artillery school at Fort Sill, we brand-new lieutenants would be briefed for our field exercises by a soft-spoken captain of gunnery who would carefully explain the mission we were expected to carry out over the next three days. Our immediate reaction, at least early in the course, was general consternation: "We can't do all that in three days! It's impossible, it's unfair, it's . . . ."
Captain Quinnett was the gentlest, calmest and probably the most effective of our instructors. (We called him Mother Quinnett behind his back.) He would let us gripe for a while, get it out of our system, and then remind us in the softest tones: "Gentlemen, the time you're wasting is your own. You have a choice. You can get busy solving this problem or you can go on fighting it. Which is it going to be?"
These days we can all stay hot and bothered about illegal immigration, and have a wonderful time throwing around red-flag words like ILLEGAL ALIENS! and AMNESTY! to no great avail. Instead, let's face some realities: The first is that this issue isn't about to go away any time soon. Why not start solving it at at last? And let's recognize that this is an opportunity, too. Every wave of new immigrants in the country's history has set off the same fears, and proved a boon in the end.
Why not combine a couple of the most sensible approaches to this challenge: (1) Continue to strengthen our southern border, and (2) find a way to put the millions of illegal immigrants who are already here, who have clean records, and who are gainfully employed and making lives for themselves and their families in this country, on the road to solid citizenship?
We can get busy solving this problem or just go on fighting it. Which is it going to be?
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Paul Greenberg, editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, took some time off this week. The original version of this column appeared April 26, 2006.
Editorial on 12/24/2014