Andrew Friedman
Immigrants and Animals
Last Tuesday night, the debate in Washington about immigrants and immigration policy hit a new low. Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, was waxing poetic about how to build a wall along the border with Mexico, when he pulled out some mock electrical wiring to show how a border wall could be electrified.
He said,
We could also electrify this wire with the kind of current that would not kill somebody, but it would be a discouragement for them to be fooling around with it. We do that with livestock all the time.
So, now I think I get it. The right is against comprehensive immigration reform and for militarization of our Southern border because they think that immigrants and their families are just job-stealing animals.
Once immigrants are seen as sub-human, it is easy to ignore their aspirations, their value, and their economic and cultural contributions to the United States.
Representative King has torn the mask off of the sanctimonious law and order rhetoric of the right and exposed the ugly racism that undergirds it. Let's see if anyone changes positions.
Andrew Friedman: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 10:38 AM, Jul 17, 2006 in Immigration
Permalink | Email to Friend | Comments (1)
Comments
That is a sad commentary on how some people view other people (how do these people get appointed or even worse *elected* to positions of responsibility?). To state the obvious no one is livestock nor should they be treated like it.
The right's bind in this is that they depend on those immigrants to take jobs no one else will take and to support the general exploitation and devaluation of labor. That's why the right appears conflicted on this issue, with the President and others wanting the cheapest cheap labor (be they "guest workers" or marginalized immigrants) and other elements wanting fences and the Great Wall of Mexico.
Posted by: John Cook | July 17, 2006 01:27 PM