Immigration panel points to U.S. history

As the debate on immigration continues to fragment the nation, a panel of experts discussed problems and possible solutions yesterday.

"Immigration is an issue which divides America in so many ways," Wilson School Acting Dean Nolan McCarty said as he introduced a panel that discussed "Debating Immigration," a book by Carol Swain. The author, who served as a moderator, is a political science and law professor at Vanderbilt University.

First to speak was Roger Hernandez, a syndicated columnist who focuses on issues concerning Hispanic Americans.

Hernandez said the notion that most Hispanic immigrant families do not learn English is a myth and mentioned figures indicating that the vast majority of second-generation Hispanic Americans are linguistically assimilated. Hernandez further warned against turning an argument against illegal immigration into an argument against legal immigration.

"Every country has a right to control its borders," he said, but that does not mean that legal immigration should be prevented. Concerning the argument that immigrants are "taking the jobs of Americans," Hernandez argued that if we were to go back in time and stop every ship carrying immigrants, the United States would not be the country it is today.

Sociology professor Douglass Massey called immigration "one of the most misunderstood issues of our day," describing a paradox in which the United States at once wants to "reap the benefits of globalization" by allowing relatively free trade and attempts to close its borders to immigrants.

In the last two decades, Massey said, the United States has ratcheted up border patrols on the U.S-Mexican border.

But the billions of dollars spent on border patrol have backfired, he said. The influx of migrants has remained relatively constant, yet due to the dangers of crossing the border, the outflow of migrants has decreased by half, resulting in a net increase in illegal immigration.

Yale Law School professor Peter Schuck distinguished between immigration policy and immigrant policy, noting that the former is controlled by the federal government, whereas the latter, which determines the rights of immigrants, is set by state governments.

Another panelist, Robert Wuthnow, director of the Center for the Study of Religion and chair of the sociology department, addressed the religious aspect of the immigration debate. Particularly, Wuthnow spoke of the religious nature of the United States and the Christian exclusivist argument that restrictive immigration policies are in accordance with biblical principles.

Wuthnow described one-third of America's population as exclusivist Christians who believe, for example, that "Muslims should not be allowed to worship in the United States" and that the government should closely watch immigrants. Wuthnow explains that America's mostly Christian background and such religious arguments are important facets of the immigration debate.

Manuel Perez '11, who attended the panel discussion, said that the border issue with Mexico was not just an economic issue, but an issue of national identity. He claimed that, as Americans, "we should not be building walls with nations, but building bridges."