Immigration Returns?

President Obama made a major speech on the need for immigration reform a couple of days before the 4th of July that got a pretty good review from called Immigration Returns from Paul Walman in the Pospect because it put us in the way back machine to 1921.

The American public was fed up with hordes of aliens pouring into the country, speaking foreign tongues and threatening to take jobs from native-born citizens. So Congress took decisive action, and passed the Emergency Quota Act.

It was 1921, and the new law, designed to solve the country's immigration problem, limited immigration from any one country to 3 percent of the population from that country counted in the 1910 census -- so if there were 100,000 immigrants from a particular nation already here, then only 3,000 more could be admitted per year.

But countries in the Western Hemisphere were exempt -- as many Canadians as wanted could immigrate, and the doors were wide open to Mexicans, Salvadorans, Brazilians, and everyone else from Latin America. At the time, the invaders that threatened to dilute the American character were thought to come from our east (especially southern Europe) and west (China) but not our north and south.

Nevertheless, we can give Obama credit for speaking to us like adults. He noted that for all the admirable values underlying the country's founding, "the ink on our Constitution was barely dry when, amidst conflict, Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which placed harsh restrictions on those suspected of having foreign allegiances." And he discussed the problems with the legal immigration system, which is the most neglected aspect of this issue.

It's good to hear the president make a speech saying the right things about immigration. He not only discussed the legal immigration system, he spoke truthfully about our history of nativism, described the centrality of immigration to the American character and the American economy, detailed the complex but necessary task of moving undocumented immigrants toward citizenship, and even complimented George W. Bush for advocating comprehensive reform.

But without a little more courage in Congress -- which means tackling the problem even though you'll be sure some people who would like to live behind walls will yell about it -- reform will be put off to a more politically opportune moment. Which is another way of saying it will be put off indefinitely.

Meanwhile back home our own Governor Patrick is to be commended for never, never, never giving up on making sure that legal immigrants were included in our state’s commitment to universal health care by including a special section in his budget message asking the Legislature to protect the Commonwealth Bridge Program.

Sample “Thank you letters” to the Governor and “Please support letters” to the Legislative leadership can be found here. 

Finally over the 4th of July there seemed to be lots of celebration parties for new citizens, all of whom were breathing a large sigh of relief at surviving the process. This one from the Globe,  and this horror story from the Christian Science Monitor reminds us that some folks ain’t doing any partying.

And finally finally a new twist on the jobs issue, check out these stories about a new job site from CNN  and the Huffington Post.