More Lies and Deceptions on Immigration Debunked

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

It's about time that progressives start fighting back against the demonization of immigration that will be laced into every policy critique that Republicans make between now and November.  The Public Policy Institute of California has helpfully provided the facts on just one of the many falsehoods peddled about immigration.

Fears that immigration leads to rising crime rates are unjustified, says a California study released Monday.

The report by the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan research group, asked the question: Are the foreign-born more likely than the U.S.-born to commit crimes?

"In California, as in the rest of the nation, immigrants ... have extremely low rates of criminal activity," said Kristin Butcher, a co-author of the report, "Crime, Corrections and California: What Does Immigration Have to Do With It?"

Available data, the report's authors said, "suggest that long-standing fears of immigration as a threat to public safety are unjustified."

Just as fears about immigrants stealing government services and free health care are unjustified.  Just as fears about immigrants sinking the economy are unjustified.  In fact, all that Republicans base this debate on is fear, which for them is of course redundant.

I'll refer to something I wrote many months ago about the preferred progressive approach to the immigration debate:

"My opponents on the other side of the aisle have spent practically their entire primary campaign engaged in demagoguery over the issue of immigration.  They put out ads accusing immigrants of murder and rape, they encourage the arrest of church leaders that offer aid and services, and they advocate building fences and deporting millions of undocumented workers.

But the truth is, they don't want to fix this.  So-called "illegal immigration" is the best thing that's ever happened to the Republican Party.  They have had nearly 30 years of relative dominance in Washington to deal with the problem.  But if they ever fixed it, they would have to answer for the real reasons there is a teetering economy, soaring health care and gas prices, growing inequality and a whole generation of Americans destined to do worse than their parents.  Immigrants are nothing more than a scapegoat, and anyone who's read a history book or has Irish or Italian heritage knows that there's a long tradition of that in this country.  Conservative politicians who have seen their economic ideas fail must find someone, anyone to blame.  If so-called illegal immigration went away tomorrow, there wouldn't be anything left.  Their failed ideology would be laid bare.  They don't want to get rid of illegal immigrants.  They don't want to do anything about it.  They want a safety valve for their own shortcomings."

Our top potential legislative pickups come in areas where the spectre of "illegal immigration" is sure to be floated.  There's absolutely no reason to cower in the face of such attacks.  The issue has fizzled even at the Republican ballot box this primary season, and it's built on a web of lies.  Memo to Democratic candidates: there's nothing to fear here.