P.G. Smith Author

Exit polls show that the number one issue for Republicans was immigration. No surprise. They said so all along; and it was high on the list for almost everyone. Why do you suppose that is? I can understand concern about inflation, high prices, housing shortage. But really? Immigration? Across the board from Idaho to South Carolina? Who is affected by that? Are you? It hasn’t affected my life.

I think it is a triumph of propaganda. Trump focused the main force of his campaign on that issue. It’s made for him. For months he railed about millions of ‘illegals’ pouring across virtually open borders, creating chaos in cities, taking jobs from locals, causing prices to rise, producing a national crime wave, raping, murdering, and (possibly) eating our dogs. Hordes of barbaric, dark-skinned aliens flooding across our land, using up benefits meant for us, and ‘contaminating our blood.’ You may not have seen them yet, but they are coming. Millions of them. And it’s all Harris’s fault. She was supposed to keep them out, but she let them in. She wants them in. She busses them in so they can (fraudulently) vote for her, because she’s one of them. And Trump is the only thing standing between you and THEM. He will keep you safe.

Donald Trump is nothing if not a good salesman. We have to give him that. But given that almost every word of that rant is a lie (or a gigantic exaggeration) why do so many people believe him? Why does the propaganda work?

As usual, I think it helps to look at our history. Fear of the ‘other,’ the outsider, the stranger is ancient, probably primal or even instinctive. The world has always been dangerous. But let’s go with more recent history.

Despite the lovely poem on our statue of liberty, the US has never been welcoming to immigrants who were not white, and preferably Northern European. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 ended Chinese immigration (once we had enough to build the railroads.) Jim Crow laws kept Blacks second class citizens, since they couldn’t be deported. In 1924 the Johnson-Reed Act imposed ethnic quotas strongly favoring Northern Europeans for the stated purpose of maintaining the Anglo-Saxon character of the country. (We didn’t mince words back then.) In 1929 “unauthorized entry and re-entry” became a crime (This was aimed at Mexicans.) thus, creating the border patrol. Yet, for decades Mexicans were allowed in to work the fields, and when ‘apprehended’ were simply sent back to Mexico. But in 1965 serious restrictions were placed on Latin American immigration, and in the 1980s it started being prosecuted as a crime.

This was also about the time when Latinos started being viewed as a threat just because of their numbers. People started talking about statistics–some states, like California and Arizona–might not have a white majority soon. Pres. Clinton started The Wall in California; Bush promised reform; Obama became our ‘deporter-in-chief.’ Over the past four and a half decades five presidents have struggled with the ‘immigration problem,’ none successfully, in response to public demand.

Trump did not create this issue, but he certainly did turn it to his own purpose and benefit. So–why do people believe Donald Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric? Because they already had vague fears that he whips into panic. If we really want to address this issue (which is in fact very complex) we need to look at ourselves, our history, our values, and our fears (not Donald Trump.) We need to be honest about who we are and what we stand for and how we can come to agreement on what we should do about it. I welcome your thoughts.

There are a lot of good books about this. Here are three I recommend:

Welcome the Wretched: In defense of the “Criminal Alien” by Cesar Cuauhtemoc Garcia Hernandez

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The US, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis by Jonathan Blitzer

Our Migrant Souls by Hector Tobar