Anti-Immigration Nut-Wings Sell Fear, but Fear Reason

The laws should be rigidly enforced which prohibit the immigration of a servile class to compete with American labor, with no intention of acquiring citizenship, and bringing with them and retaining habits and customs repugnant to our civilization. - Grover Cleveland, First Inaugural Address (Wednesday, March 4, 1885)

Sound strangely familiar to the venom now being spewed forth by the anti-immigration forces of today?

So as the battle heats up over the effort to allow millions of human beings now here in this country from south of the border, working to feed and clothe their families (but without the proper cards being marked by the bureaucracy), it is best to remember that propaganda and bigotry have long been the tools of despot emperors who have no clothes.

Once the law is changed to respect the Mexican immigrants' contributions to the American society, as has been done in the past with respect to other immigrant groups, even in Cleveland's time, the “illegal” immigrant argument also will have no legs. That is the biggest fear of the xenophobic crowd - that they will no longer have any argument to make beyond propaganda and bigotry.