A “necessary evil”… and why it doesn’t have to be that way
The misguided and draconian Arizona immigration law has at least one positive effect: keeping national attention focused on the urgent need for comprehensive reform. It’s also a prime example of the moral consequences of federal inaction on the issue.
Unfortunately, many commentators have neglected to connect the dots between tremendous frustration with the federal government’s refusal to put forward a viable solution to our broken immigration system and high levels of support for the Arizona law.
A Washington Post poll that came out last week exemplifies this dynamic:
At the same time that a majority of Americans back the Arizona law, most say they support a program allowing illegal immigrants already in the United States the right to live here legally if they pay a fine and meet certain requirements. In the new poll, 57 percent support the option, close to the level in spring 2009 at the 100-day mark of Obama’s presidency.
Furthermore, a recent CNN/Opinion Research poll found that while 57 percent of Americans support the Arizona law, 80 percent favor “[c]reating a program that would allow illegal immigrants already living in the United States for a number of years to stay here and apply to legally remain in this country permanently if they had a job and paid back taxes.”
When polling shows stronger support for a comprehensive federal solution than for a divisive state solution, you have an important narrative, which is getting missed by most of the mainstream media. The takeaway from this polling should not be that most Americans think laws like Arizona’s are the best way to reform our broken immigration system. Rather, Americans desperately want Congress to do its job and fix a dysfunctional system that drives down wages for all workers, separates families, compromises our interests and our values as a nation, and leaves millions vulnerable to exploitation.
As our friend Robby Jones, president of Public Religion Research, has pointed out:
While a recent New York Times poll on the Arizona law showed that a slim majority (51 percent) said the law was “about right,” strong majorities also expressed reservations about its consequences: 80 percent said it would lead to immigrant communities not cooperating with the police, and 82 percent said it would probably lead to racial profiling. Reflecting this ambivalence, one person interviewed called it a “necessary evil.”
Too many media outlets are covering this issue in a one-dimensional way… reporting support for the Arizona law without including the important other side of the coin: most of the law’s supporters support it because it’s the only option they see on the table (a.k.a. a “necessary evil.”) Until the President and Congress step up and put some serious muscle into an effort to comprehensively reform the broken system at the federal level, we’ll continue to see overinflated levels of support for extreme state legislation.
When it comes to immigration reform, I think Tony Campolo but it best in his “Red Letter Christians” book. He argued for “high walls and wide gates.” If we are going to reform immigration we must first close the border, but after doing so we need a much more equitable process for allowing people into the country, and for providing a path to citizenship and assimilation of those already present.