In this country we have allowed, for some reason, the most xenophobic demagogues among us to take the lead on writing the terms of our immigration policy. A country that once welcomed immigrants as foundational to its identity now closes its borders and heaps abuse on vulnerable people for the crime of wanting to become an American.
This country used to have reasonable entry requirements, guest worker programs, and pathways to citizenship. Our industrial strength – and our agricultural strength – was built on the labor of immigrants who came to this country to work hard and make good, and we have all benefited greatly from their efforts.
But all my life, for no other reason than to satisfy the complaints of loud, angry bigots, we’ve been putting up walls and building cages and making it harder and harder for people to come to America and prosper.
Republicans have insisted on this, and Democrats have abetted them with bipartisan solutions have not appeased anyone. For all that’s been done to make the border a harsher place, the loud, angry bigots have only gotten louder and angrier. But there will never be a way to satisfy a movement that think it’s funny to trick Venezuelan asylum seekers into being dumped off on Martha’s Vineyard so GOP politicians can get air time on Fox News.
Ron DeSantis. Greg Abbot. Ted Cruz. Donald Trump. Mike Pompeo. Tucker Carlson.
These are some of the most hateful pukes in America – genuinely bad people working in bad faith to attack the least-empowered among us. These are demagogues who delight in targeting vulnerable groups for political gain, and yet they are the ones whose lead we follow on border policy.
Even politicians who should be better get turned to the dark side, like Keene Mayor George Hansel, who worked with a libertarian PAC to put out a shameful-ass anti-immigrant commercial when he was running for Congress.
It seems funny to me the way libertarians’ conception of liberty does not encompass the right of free people to move across borders. Maybe funny isn’t the word for it.
Meanwhile, George’s friend, Governor Chris Sununu (R), sent the New Hampshire National Guard down to the southern border for some godforsaken reason.
This was announced in October 2022, right before the midterm elections. Not that I’m suggesting that sending our well-regulated militia out of state was politically motivated and in bad faith except that IT TOTALLY WAS, and also it affects the lives and families of 44 NH National Guardsmen who don’t even need to be down there now that the election is over.
More recently Sununu proposed spending $1.4 million in state money on sealing up the border with Canada, because he wants to remind the Republican base that he too is an angry man who can perform ritual hostility targeting disfavored groups.
And they are at it again. The current anti-immigrant effort in New Hampshire is focused on attacking sanctuary cities, which are communities that have recognized that it is not the role of local government to be the enforcer of federal immigration laws.
The anti-sanctuary city bill, S.B. 132, has passed the Senate and will be discussed before the House Municipal and County Government Committee on Thursday, April 20 at 3 PM. You can sign in against the bill here and write to the members of the Committee here. Please let your legislators know that you oppose this unconscionable bill.
Keene is a sanctuary city, and this bill is an attack on us for our humanity.
It seems funny to me that the same party that passed a law preventing state and local police from having any involvement in enforcing federal gun laws also thinks that local municipalities do need to be drafted against their will into supporting federal immigration enforcement.
Again, maybe funny isn’t the word for it.