Ever wondered when the dehumanizing rhetoric of Latin American immigrants started? No, not with President Donald Trump. It started in 1965 when a new system of immigration was introduced. The old system had built-in prejudices against Catholics and Jews, and the Center for Immigration Studies said, “It is widely believed that the new system has shifted the composition of immigrants away from Europe[and]towards Latin America.” There are,’ he concluded.
I was lucky because I was able to enter the US under the old rules. Additionally, the United States has ended a legal way for Mexicans to enter the United States, called the Bracero Program, which gives Mexicans work permits.
Good thing, growing up, I remember a bad joke about a few Mexicans who swam across the Rio Grande. All they did was take the ignorant proclaimed “siesta”. With the new rules, unauthorized immigration has grown from almost zero in 1965 to more than 10 million he now. The Center points out: “
OK, politics will take over and common sense will be thrown away.
The political opportunist was the stepson of Patrick Buchanan, who ran for president in the 1990s. He recognized that immigration was a good political issue to act on. Prior to 1965, there were few negative tropes to describe Mexican immigration, other than “wetbacks.” There were marine metaphors such as “rising tide” and “tsunami” and migrant “flood”. However, this was soon superseded by martial arts tropes such as “alien invaders,” “invasion,” and even “Bonji’s suicide attack.” Former President Trump added to this inhuman rhetoric: they are committing crime. they are rapists. ”
President Ronald Reagan even said illegal immigration is a national security issue. In 1986, he told the Americans, “Terrorists and vandals are only a two-day drive from Harlingen, Texas.”
Patrick Buchanan beat Reagan by a mile. He said that illegal immigration was “part of a plan hatched by the Mexicans to reclaim land lost in 1848.” They have come to conquer us. ”
Wow! What surprised me the most is the rhetoric used to describe the humans who want to be here. A “refugee” who fled communism, a “refugee” who spent five years in an Austrian refugee camp, an “immigrant” who came to America legally. And when he sponsored a Cuban family of five to settle in Minnesota, he was applauded for helping Cuban “exiles.”
Some terms apply only to specific groups. For example, there are Cuban exiles, but no Cuban aliens. Mexicans are never called refugees. Authorities are wary of using that term. So it doesn’t matter if Ukrainians are called refugees, but Haitians are not. As Don Flynn of the Immigrant Rights Network puts it, calling Mexicans “illegal immigrants” is because it associates Mexicans with criminal activity.
did you get it all?
Immigrants will keep coming, no matter what we call them, no matter how many walls we build. There is no hope in the country they leave, and there is hope once they get to the U.S. The chances of winning the big lottery are slim at best, but people don’t stop buying lottery tickets. Illegal immigrants and lottery players want the same thing: hope.
Jon Freivals of Weyzata, Minnesota is the author of six books, Honorary Consul of Latvia, Minnesota, and a regular contributor to the News Tribune opinion page. His website is his jfapress.com.
