California's Proposition 187 was the tinderbox that set off the most recent anti-immigrant explosion in the United States. In that state's distinctive brand of rightwing populism, over four and a half million Californians–59% of the electorate–voted to deprive undocumented immigrants of the right to medical care and education. School teachers, nurses, social workers and police officers were all ordered to report to the authorities anyone they suspected of being undocumented.
Since that election a year ago, copy-cat "Save Our State" (SOS) movements have sprung up in other parts of the country.The U.S. Congress has jumped on the anti-immigrant bandwagon. As in other areas of U.S. domestic policy, while the Republicans are making the more extreme proposals, the Democrats–fearful of alienating the country's supposed political "center"–are tripping over each other in their rush to the right as well.
The maze of bills currently before Congress reflects the depth and breadth of the immigration backlash. Resentment towards undocumented immigrants has been transmuted into a presumed prerogative to slash legal immigration by a third and refugee admissions by half, and to deny welfare, Medicaid and food stamps to legal immigrants. "The American people are fed up," says Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson, the architect of that chamber's principal anti-immigration bill, casting himself as an innocent servant of the people. "When they want the law enforced, they are called racist and xenophobic."
The roots of the backlash are essentially twofold: economic uncertainty, and uneasiness about the country's changing demographics. As Mike Davis points out in this issue, the social origins of Prop 187 can be traced to the white suburbs of Los Angeles. Families in these communities, like others across the United States, have been buffeted by economic forces beyond their control. The end of the Cold War put a dagger through California's huge military-industrial complex. In the increasingly globalized economy, U.S. companies nationwide have become leaner and meaner in order to remain competitive. Unionized jobs that guaranteed job security and social benefits at places like General Motors and Boeing are rapidly disappearing.
Rising middle-class insecurity has dovetailed with the increased presence of immigrant minorities in the United States, especially in its big cities. The undocumented–totalling a miniscule 1.3% of the U.S. population–have been singled out for attack. These waiters and waitresses, nannies, grape pickers, gardeners and flower vendors have become the scapegoats for the nation's woes. Immigrants are being accused of taking jobs away from U.S. citizens, dragging down the economy, and abusing the welfare systern. As several articles in this report point out, these arguments do not hold up under scrutiny. Nonetheless, politicians have been quick to seize on such folk-myths to promote an anti-immigrant, anti-poverty agenda that has gone straight for the jugular of the country's network of social protections.
Ironically, the bedrock of support for anti-immigrant measures comes from people who have the disposable income to spend on the personal services that undocumented labor provides. Perhaps these people are so blinded by racism that they don't realize that they are harming their own interests. More likely, they know that as long as the gulf between North and South remains wide, immigrants will keep coming to the United States regardless of measures like Prop 187. Denying social services to these immigrants will only make them more vulnerable and, consequently, cheaper.
The loudest opposition has come from high-technology manufacturers such as Microsoft and Intel who worry that the anti-immigration measures will restrict their freedom to hire foreign workers for jobs in the United States. Ironically, the progressive response to the backlash has so far been inuted. Many Puerto Ricans, African Americans and more established Latinos worry that new immigrants may be competing for their jobs and driving wages down. Others debate strategy–whether to participate in street protests, get-out-the-vote drives, or lobbying. In any event. the first step for progressives is to know the social and economic forces that we are up against and to explode the myths. We hope this report points the way.
