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On Election Day, War and Immigration Are Fusing
Commentator and essayist Richard Rodriguez spoke with NAM editor Sandip Roy about the immigration landscape, the mid-term elections, and the Secure Fence Act that promises 700 miles of fencing along the U.S. Mexico border. Rodriguez is an essayist and author of, most recently, "Brown: The Last Discovery of America" (Viking, 2003), is working on a book about religion. Roy is host of New America Media radio show, Up Front.
Q: Has the war trumped immigration as the election issue?
A: I think in many ways the war and immigration are related issues. I have argued that as the war has gone badly, Americans have been left with a sense of vulnerability. If we cannot control the world in the Middle East, and clearly the design we are trying to impress upon the sand is not keeping, I think we are beginning to feel can we control the world here. With this the migration across the southern line, there is this feeling that America is not under America’s control. I predicted that if the war goes badly, Mexican migrant workers will pay the price.
Q: The president did say we are fighting them in Iraq, so we don’t have to fight them here. Both issues are all about keeping someone out -- the Al Qaeda terrorist or the undocumented Mexican. Are they fusing?
A: They are fusing. The suggestion is we don’t know who “they” are anymore. The young man who says he is looking for a job at a drycleaners in Dallas, Texas may in fact be an Al Qaeda agent and we cannot tell the difference. They look the same and in either case they are not asking our permission.
Q: You say the impression on the sand isn’t sticking in the Middle East. But now we are trying to build a fence in more scrub and sand on the border.
A: The illusion that we can control the migration of the poor is one of the most daunting tasks. The world is in movement. The global market is obviously in movement. America is building McDonalds and Wal-Marts and Gold’s Gyms aplenty in Mexico. But now the poor are in movement. And that is something we really don’t know what to do with. What do we do if we are Spaniards and every night Senegal is coming into the Canary islands? What do we do with Brazilians coming into Alaska, or Romanians coming to Rome?
Q: But is the answer build a fence? An Opinion Research Corporation poll says 45 percent of Americans want a 700-mile fence and 74 percent want more border agents.
A: What is not clear is whether or not Americans are willing to pay $20 for a head of lettuce. When it comes time to find someone to sit with our mother as she is dying, will we be able to find the person for the wages we are willing to pay? In all the surveys about whether or not Americans are in favor of the fence, I never see that question.
Q: What does the fence symbolize to you?
A: In every newscast, if you watch the weather report, the United States appears as a balloon in a sea of green or blue. There is no Canada and there is no Mexico. The American dream of itself is that we are free floating. If we are bordered at all, we are bordered by sea on the eastern and western flanks. But there’s no north, there’s no south. That’s a very old American self-conception.
More
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=d805301961d45e05793090f785f74e5b
A: I think in many ways the war and immigration are related issues. I have argued that as the war has gone badly, Americans have been left with a sense of vulnerability. If we cannot control the world in the Middle East, and clearly the design we are trying to impress upon the sand is not keeping, I think we are beginning to feel can we control the world here. With this the migration across the southern line, there is this feeling that America is not under America’s control. I predicted that if the war goes badly, Mexican migrant workers will pay the price.
Q: The president did say we are fighting them in Iraq, so we don’t have to fight them here. Both issues are all about keeping someone out -- the Al Qaeda terrorist or the undocumented Mexican. Are they fusing?
A: They are fusing. The suggestion is we don’t know who “they” are anymore. The young man who says he is looking for a job at a drycleaners in Dallas, Texas may in fact be an Al Qaeda agent and we cannot tell the difference. They look the same and in either case they are not asking our permission.
Q: You say the impression on the sand isn’t sticking in the Middle East. But now we are trying to build a fence in more scrub and sand on the border.
A: The illusion that we can control the migration of the poor is one of the most daunting tasks. The world is in movement. The global market is obviously in movement. America is building McDonalds and Wal-Marts and Gold’s Gyms aplenty in Mexico. But now the poor are in movement. And that is something we really don’t know what to do with. What do we do if we are Spaniards and every night Senegal is coming into the Canary islands? What do we do with Brazilians coming into Alaska, or Romanians coming to Rome?
Q: But is the answer build a fence? An Opinion Research Corporation poll says 45 percent of Americans want a 700-mile fence and 74 percent want more border agents.
A: What is not clear is whether or not Americans are willing to pay $20 for a head of lettuce. When it comes time to find someone to sit with our mother as she is dying, will we be able to find the person for the wages we are willing to pay? In all the surveys about whether or not Americans are in favor of the fence, I never see that question.
Q: What does the fence symbolize to you?
A: In every newscast, if you watch the weather report, the United States appears as a balloon in a sea of green or blue. There is no Canada and there is no Mexico. The American dream of itself is that we are free floating. If we are bordered at all, we are bordered by sea on the eastern and western flanks. But there’s no north, there’s no south. That’s a very old American self-conception.
More
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=d805301961d45e05793090f785f74e5b
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