Immigrants Targeted: Extremist Rhetoric Moves Into the Mainstream
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Getting to Know the Opposition
Getting to Know the Opposition April 2007 by Judith Golub, Executive Director Getting to Know the Opposition -- Nativists and the Immigration Debate Judith Golub, Executive Director, Immigrant Legal Resource Center Immigration matters. Immigration has been and will continue to be central to who we are as a nation and key to our economic, social and cultural vigor and well-being. Immigration matters because of its dramatic impacts on people’s lives. Immigration laws and policies determine if loved ones can stay together, refugees and asylees are granted the protection they deserve, and American business has the workers it needs. Security experts also emphasize that a well-running immigration system enhances our security. Certainly, our current system has taught us that enforcing dysfunctional laws leads to more dysfunction, not more enforcement. Immigration also is a high profile issue, not only because Congress is debating how best to reform our laws, but also because immigration incites deep passions. And anti-immigrant groups have manipulated these passions, especially after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Well organized and with deep pockets, these groups operate at the federal, state and local levels. They are determined to reduce, if not end, immigration to this country, notwithstanding the fact that immigrants contribute to our educational, cultural and social well-being. Fearful of our nation’s changing demographics and diversity, some of these groups position themselves as mainstream and “pro-immigrant while anti-immigration,” and caution their members to not appear racist. Others openly flaunt their white nationalist and anti-immigrant, anti-Jewish, anti-Latino, anti-black, and anti-gay agenda. -
“Go After the Women”: Mothers Against Illegal Aliens' Campaign
“Go After the Women”: Mothers Against Illegal Aliens’ Campaign Against Mexican Immigrant Women and Their Children ∗ MARY ROMERO INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................1355 I. INTERSECTIONALITY AND MOTHERING DISCOURSES ..................................1363 A. Domesticity and Motherhood............................................................1363 B. Latina Immigrants and Domesticity..................................................1365 C. Race, Ethnicity, Class, Citizenship, and Unfit Mothers....................1367 II. CONSTRUCTING ANTI-IMMIGRANT CAMPAIGN AGAINST IMMIGRANT MOTHERS ...................................................................................................1370 A. Nativism and Mothering Discourse ..................................................1371 B. Establishing Economic and Security Threats ...................................1380 CONCLUSION........................................................................................................1388 INTRODUCTION “Protect Our Children, Secure Our Borders!” is the rallying cry adopted by Mothers Against Illegal Aliens (MAIA), an Arizona-based women’s anti-immigration group founded by Michelle Dallacroce in January 2006.1 Like other race-based nativist groups emerging in the United States, MAIA targets immigrants as the reason for overcrowded and low-achieving schools, increased crime, unemployment, poor access to affordable health care, and the overall drain on public benefits.2 As mounting -
Trumpfronterizo the Influence of Trumpism on Socio-Economic Cross-Border Flows in the San Diego – Tijuana Bi-National Metropolitan Area
Trumpfronterizo The influence of Trumpism on socio-economic cross-border flows in the San Diego – Tijuana bi-national metropolitan area Nadim van Minnen Radboud University Nijmegen | s4801431 1 Trumpfronterizo The influence of Trumpism on socio-economic cross-border flows in the San Diego – Tijuana bi-national metropolitan area Front page background sources: Autodesk, 2018. Own figure, 2017. Wikimedia Commons, 2017. Master thesis Nadim van Minnen Radboud University Nijmegen | Nijmegen School of Management Department of Geography, Planning and Environment MSc. Programme Human Geography: Globalisation, Migration and Development Thesis supervisor: Dr. Lothar Smith Nadim van Minnen [s4801431] [email protected] 10 July 2018 Radboud University Nijmegen 2 PREFACE This thesis was written as an integral part of the Master program of Human Geography and the track Globalisation, Migration and Development at Radboud University Nijmegen. This master thesis is the final assignment that needed to be completed in order finish this study, and therefore to receive my degree as a Master of Science. As can be seen in the methodology chapter and the conclusion, as well as annex 4, there were some small problems while doing this research, mostly due to the bi-national nature of this research. However, everything turned out alright in the end as I gathered plenty of information in order to make valid and informed statements regarding the issues at play in this thesis. A major thank you therefore goes out to my informants and expert interviewees for sacrificing their valuable time, their expertise and their willingness to participate. Without them and the useful information they provided me, I would not have gotten what I wanted out of this research. -
'Broken Borders' and Stone Walls
Talk of ‘Broken Borders’ and Stone Walls 21 Talk of ‘Broken Borders’ and Stone Walls: Anti-immigrant Discourse and Legislation from California to South Carolina Ann Kingsolver University of South Carolina The anti-immigrant sentiments that propelled the passage of California Proposition 187 in 1994 – linked to an economic downturn and worries about NAFTA – have been echoed across the U.S. over the intervening sixteen years. This article briefly reviews public discourse about anti-immigrant legislation in a wave of other states from California to South Carolina, and discusses the convergence of anti- immigrant and white supremacist projects in the U.S., using the concepts of market citizenship and citizen surveillance. As new anti-immigrant legislation is proposed in the South, understanding it within its national and historical context is important. This discussion includes consideration of the role of metaphor in both fueling and countering anti-immigrant discourse. Anti-immigrant discourse: ‘broken’ borders and stone walls Legislation that may be worded in terms of protecting U.S. or state citizens but be referred to in public discourse as anti-immigration or anti-immigrant legislation has been making its way through statehouses across the U.S. over the past decade and a half. This is the latest round of legislation blaming recent immigrants (often from a specific nation or set of nations) for economic hardship or criminal activity in the U.S., which is portrayed as possible to alleviate with the removal or barring of undocumented or “illegal immigrants.” The research question taken up here is: what larger discursive projects (e.g., racializing projects, cf. -
La Gran Marcha: Anti-Racism and Immigrants Rights in Southern California
La Gran Marcha: Anti-Racism and Immigrants Rights in Southern California Jenna M. Loyd1 Department of Geography, Syracuse University 144 Eggers Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244-1020 USA Email: [email protected] Andrew Burridge Department of Geography, University of Southern California, 416 Kaprielian Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0255 USA Email: [email protected] Abstract Millions of people across the United States took to the streets in spring 2006 to protest repressive immigration legislation, demand just immigration reform, and seek justice in daily life. This article has two aims. First, we seek to intervene in the popular immigration debate, which denies racism and claims to be concerned only with law-and-order. Second, we analyze (im)migration politics in relation to national racial formations. That is, racialized immigration policies do not exist apart from a racially stratified citizenry. We rely on the concept of social death to trace state policies of immigration and criminalization as key sites of interracial and transnational struggles against racism and for justice and liberation. Thus, we seek to elucidate possibilities for anti-racist alliances and social change. We conclude with a discussion of the ways in which we see the immigrants rights movement connecting with other struggles for social justice, and the implications that 1 © Jenna M. Loyd and Andrew Burridge, 2007 La Gran Marcha: Anti-Racism and Immigrants Rights in Southern California 2 concepts of national racial formation and social death have for the movement against global apartheid. KEY WORDS: immigrants rights, racism, national racial formation, social death, criminalization, militarization, United States “Immigration politics also surfaced in California’s gubernatorial race … with Gov. -
Threatening Immigrants: Cultural Depictions of Undocumented Mexican Immigrants in Contemporary Us America
THREATENING IMMIGRANTS: CULTURAL DEPICTIONS OF UNDOCUMENTED MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS IN CONTEMPORARY US AMERICA Katharine Lee Schaab A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 2015 Committee: Jolie Sheffer, Advisor Lisa Hanasono Graduate Faculty Representative Rebecca Kinney Susana Peña © 2015 Katharine Schaab All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Jolie Sheffer, Advisor This project analyzes how contemporary US cultural and legislative texts shape US society’s impression of undocumented (im)migrants and whether they fit socially constructed definitions of what it means to “be American” or part of the US national imaginary. I argue that (im)migrant-themed cultural texts, alongside legal policies, participate in racial formation projects that use racial logic to implicitly mark (im)migrants as outsiders while actively employing ideologies rooted in gender, economics, and nationality to rationalize (im)migrants’ exclusion or inclusion from the US nation-state. I examine the tactics anti- and pro-(im)migrant camps utilize in suppressing the role of race—particularly the rhetorical strategies that focus on class, nation, and gender as rationale for (im)migrants’ inclusion or exclusion—in order to expose the similar strategies governing contemporary US (im)migration thought and practice. This framework challenges dichotomous thinking and instead focuses on gray areas. Through close readings of political and cultural texts focused on undocumented (im)migration (including documentaries, narrative fiction, and photography), this project homes in on the gray areas between seemingly pro- and anti-(im)migrant discourses. I contend (im)migration-themed political and popular rhetoric frequently selects a specific identity marker (e.g. -
Social Justice Movements Standing Strong Against Anti-Immigrant Inroads by Rebecca Poswolsky
NO. 68 SprinG 2011 Social Justice Movements Standing Strong Against Anti-Immigrant Inroads By Rebecca Poswolsky Editors’ Note: January, 2011 has already proven a sobering transition into the new year and new de- cade. Continued political violence in Arizona, the state that entrenched discrimination against immi- grants through legislation last year, and a concerted effort across fourteen states to attack the birth- right citizenship guaranteed in the 14th Amendment leave many of us disheartened. Yet committed social justice activists and organizations across many different movements are standing strong against these challenges. This month, PopDev offers two companion pieces illuminating the political context of anti-immigrant scapegoating within the U.S., the growing resistance to this politics of hate and exclu- sion, and the road forward. — Co-editors Katie McKay Bryson and Betsy Hartmann It is a well-documented fact that there are seg- spaces. It is important to the future of environ- ments of the environmental movement that mentalism to distinguish between activists and focus primarily or partially on population control organizations who focus on population that as the crucial site of changing humans’ dam- take an anti-immigrant stance, and those com- aging relationship to natural resources and wild mitted to honest, participatory conversations with people of color and immigrants around the complex social dynamics and historical prob- lems with the focus on population, and possible environmental justice-based solutions. For de- cades, inclusive discussions of this nature have been nearly impossible, partly due to structural racism and the scapegoating function that the Think. Act. Connect. U.S. anti-immigrant movement has played. -
The Nativist Lobby Three Faces of Intolerance
The Nativist Lobby Three Faces of Intolerance A Report from the Southern Poverty Law Center Montgomery, Alabama February 2009 The Nativist Lobby Three Faces of Intolerance By Heidi BeiricH • edited By Mark Potok the southern poverty law center is a nonprofit organization that combats hate, intolerance and discrimination through education and litigation. Its Intelligence Project, which prepared this report and also produces the quarterly investigative magazine Intelligence Report, tracks the activities of hate groups and the nativist movement and monitors militia and other extremist anti- government activity. Its Teaching Tolerance project helps foster respect and understanding in the classroom. Its litigation arm files lawsuits against hate groups for the violent acts of their members. MEDIA AND GENERAL INQUIRIES Mark Potok, Editor Heidi Beirich Southern Poverty Law Center 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, Ala. (334) 956-8200 www.splcenter.org • www.intelligencereport.org • www.splcenter.org/blog This report was prepared by the staff of the Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Center is supported entirely by private donations. No government funds are involved. © Southern Poverty Law Center. All rights reserved. southern poverty law center Table of Contents Preface 4 The Puppeteer: John Tanton and the Nativist Movement 5 FAIR: The Lobby’s Action Arm 9 CIS: The Lobby’s ‘Independent’ Think Tank 13 NumbersUSA: The Lobby’s Grassroots Organizer 18 southern poverty law center Editor’s Note By Mark Potok Three Washington, D.C.-based immigration-restriction organizations stand at the nexus of the American nativist movement: the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and NumbersUSA. -
81% Say English Should Be Official Language of United States
Summer 2018 Rasmussen Poll: 81% Say English Should Be Official Language Of United States A new poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports and ProEnglish has and other official government documents be printed in English found that 81% of Americans believe that English should be the only or should they also be printed in other languages?” official language of the United States. 50% said English only; 44% said other languages; 6% were not sure. The Rasmussen national survey of 1,000 American adults was conducted on April 22-23, 2018. The Rasmussen Reports national survey has a margin of sampling error of +/- 3% with a 95% level of confidence. Rasmussen asked the 1,000 Americans: “Should English be the official language of the United States?” ProEnglish is very pleased with the outstanding survey results showing that 81% of the Americans polled believe that 81% responded yes; 12% responded no; 6% responded not sure. English should be the official language of the United States. 95% of Republicans and 75% of Democrats agreed that English ProEnglish has been sharing these overwhelmingly pro- should be the official language of the United States. official English poll results with both Congress and the White House in recent days in an effort to accelerate the passage Rasmussen also asked: “Is English the official language of the of the English Language Unity Act and the signing of a U.S. government?” new Executive Order by President Trump in order to repeal former President Clinton’s onerous Executive Order 13166 77% responded yes, incorrectly believing that English is the which mandates costly foreign language translations and official language of the U.S. -
Niñez Migrante Retornada: Migración En Un Contexto De Riesgos (Nogales, Tijuana Y Cd
NIÑEZ MIGRANTE RETORNADA: MIGRACIÓN EN UN CONTEXTO DE RIESGOS (NOGALES, TIJUANA Y CD. JUÁREZ) Tesis presentada por Yolanda Silva Quiroz para obtener el grado de MAESTRA EN DEMOGRAFÍA Tijuana, B. C., México 2010 CONSTANCIA DE APROBACIÓN Director de Tesis: Dr. Rodolfo Cruz Piñeiro Aprobada por el Jurado Examinador: 1. 2. 3. DEDICATORIA Realizar esta tesis ha requerido esfuerzo y dedicación del autor y de su director. Sin embargo no hubiera sido posible su realización, sin la presencia de los niños, niñas y adolescentes que decidieron emprender su viaje a los Estados Unidos. Lo anotado en esta tesis, es solo una pequeña parte de sus experiencias, tanto buenas como desagradables. Todos y cada uno de los menores migrantes retornados de los Estados Unidos, con los cuales el autor pudo conversar, hicieron de una idea algo más grande. Sus historias, tristezas e incluso lágrimas, ya sea por la frustración de un sueño interrumpido, o por el recuerdo de experiencias difíciles, dieron el impulso que necesitaba la investigación para definir su eje de orientación. Que este trabajo sirva para reconocer que detrás de cada cifra, de cada riesgo anotado y de cada línea escrita, existen múltiples historias que merecen ser conocidas. Un agradecimiento para aquellos que sin comprender las implicaciones de cada palabra suya, colaboraron con esta investigación. Así también, para aquellos que interrumpieron definitivamente su trayecto migratorio, y que sus restos sirven hoy para visibilizar que la migración de niños y adolescentes tiene implicaciones y dimensiones que apenas estamos conociendo. AGRADECIMIENTOS Al Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología por otorgarme la beca que me permitió estudiar la Maestría en Demografía. -
Perspectives on the Immigrant Experience and Nativism
Section_03_5500.qxd 12/9/09 3:38 PM Page 54 SECTION THREE Perspectives on the Immigrant Experience and Nativism We are all wanderers on this earth. Our hearts are full of “ wonder, and our souls are deep with dreams. ”Gypsy Proverb s the Gypsy proverb notes, human beings of immigrants intended to stay permanently, and have always wandered from place to place historically, most of them settled in urban areas. Alooking to find new homes and achieve Two major changes in recent immigration trends new dreams. Because of its ongoing history of are that the majority of immigrants are people of immigration, the United States has been called a color and that they are more likely to be located “nation of immigrants,” but this term is inaccu- in small cities and towns where people of color rate since it neglects millions of indigenous peo- have had little or no presence in the past. Such ple who had probably made their journey communities now find themselves changed not centuries earlier and were well established on the just because of the new ethnic diversity but also North American continent at the time the first by linguistic diversity in schools and religious European immigrants arrived. (Estimates of na- diversity in churches. The presence of these new tive populations at that time range from a total of immigrants has renewed the ongoing, often bitter over two million to eighteen million.) Yet it is fair debate among American citizens about how to say that immigration has been a driving force many immigrants should be permitted to settle not only for our nation’s growth and prosperity here. -
Undocumented Immigrants in a Polarized Nation
THE QUEST FOR ELUSIVE REFORM: UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS IN A POLARIZED NATION Daniel J. Tichenor, Ph.D. Knight Chair of Political Science, University of Oregon March 2021 © 2021 by Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy This material may be quoted or reproduced without prior permission, provided appropriate credit is given to the author and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Wherever feasible, papers are reviewed by outside experts before they are released. However, the research and views expressed in this paper are those of the individual researcher(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Baker Institute. This paper was commissioned by the Baker Institute Center for the United States and Mexico. The research is generously supported by a grant from the Charles Koch Foundation. Daniel J. Tichenor, Ph.D. “The Quest for Elusive Reform: Undocumented Immigrants in a Polarized Nation” https://doi.org/10.25613/JDN8-TN64 Undocumented Immigrants in a Polarized Nation Introduction: Biden’s U.S. Citizenship Act and the Politics of Immigration Reform Major immigration reform to address the status of an estimated 11 million undocumented people living in the country has long been one of most contentious—and seemingly unattainable—items on the U.S. public agenda. Nearly all significant policy innovations in U.S. politics face formidable structural veto-points, cross-cutting interest group pressures, and deep partisan divides. Yet comprehensive immigration reform has proven especially difficult to achieve over time, despite wide agreement that the existing immigration system is flawed and in need of a drastic overhaul. For decades, congressional efforts to enact broad policy changes for the nation’s undocumented population have followed a tortured path of false starts, prolonged negotiation, and frustrating stalemate.