As an addendum to my comments on the Republican debates I want to recommend "Donald Trump's America" by Linda Chavez in the October issue of Commentary. Chavez gives us a much-needed history lesson, pointing out:
The anti-immigrant rancor that is fueling Trump's popularity is nothing new in American history. A populist backlash has accompanied every wave of large-scale immigration, whether we are talking about German and Irish immigrants in the 19th century or Jews, Italians, Poles, and other Southern and Eastern Europeans in the early 20th century.
The same concerns were directed at earlier immigrants --crime, stealing jobs, lack of assimilation --that are now directed at today's immigrants from Latin America. One reason for the rapid assimilation of these earlier groups, especially in the second generation, is that everyone born here is an American citizen, and now Trump wants to revoke that birthright!
Trump also wants to deport all illegal immigrants, something that would take up to twenty years to accomplish and would cost more than $400 billion dollars, not to mention the havoc it would wreak with families. Trump probably does not even know that this has been tried before: during the Great Depression more than 400,000 Mexicans were deported, using tyrannical and unconstitutional methods. What we most need to do is find a pathway to citizenship or legal status for illegal immigrants, nearly two-thirds of whom have lived here for more than ten years.
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