Principles

Our March speaker was Alethia Jones, who has a PhD in political science from Yale and teaches at Rockefeller College, specializing in urban and ethnic politics. She was originally Jamaican, arriving here with a green card at age 11. Her talk was about "Immigration - the Moral Issue of Our Time?"

Its thrust was to draw an analogy between today's debate over immigration and past conflicts over integrating African-Americans into the broader society, ranging from the era of slavery to that of segregation, "Jim Crow" laws, and the civil rights movement. Dr. Jones sought to position the topic of immigration in this context, without advocating specific remedies or policies.

While she characterized the anti-immigration side as seemingly possessed of moral certainty, she suggested that the other side lacks a "morally compelling story;" and when asked to suggest one, she demurred. Meantime, though, Dr. Jones said, the facts at issue tend to be partial and contradictory. For example, while many believe we are being inundated with immigrants nowadays, and in absolute numbers that may be true, as a percentage of population the inflow actually peaked (at about 14%) in the 1920s. Similarly, while undocumented immigrants do entail some public costs, on the other hand they contribute billions in income tax and social security payments (through automatic withholding).

She also noted that, until 1924, the US had essentially open borders; and, contrary to widespread belief, the rejection rate at Ellis Island was only about 1%. While she acknowledged that some injustices did occur in that era, the bigger picture by far, she insisted, was one of welcoming immigrants.

But Dr. Jones saw a number of parallels between the less benign treatment of immigrants today and that of blacks under "Jim Crow": a general approach of normalizing exclusion; the existence of a separate legal system for them, with summary legal proceedings; creation of a "pass system"; and imposing limitations on permissible activities, such as allowed occupations, restrictions on property ownership, etc. Another parallel was drawn between today's efforts to involve local police in hunting undocumented aliens and, in another era, fugitive slave laws.

Dr. Jones pointed to the 1996 legislation which prescribed deportation for even legal permanent residents who are found to have committed a felony sometime in the past. Thus, people who have lived exemplary lives for decades, as productive members of society, with spouses and children who are American citizens, have been booted out of the country by the U.S. immigration gestapo, among its other crimes against humanity trashing fundamental American values (FR: my inflammatory language, not hers).

Dr. Jones said that for all the public debate anguishing over the presence of about 12 million undocumented immigrants, we have actually absorbed all these people and the sky has not fallen; whereas, in fact, if they all suddenly left, the economy would collapse.

As demonstrated by its history with regard to immigration, and African-Americans, the U.S. is not a perfect society. None ever could be. But America aspires, and works sincerely, to be better. That positive national character is what attracts people in their millions to come here. Rather than building walls, we should be rolling out the red carpet.

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"Immigration - the Moral Issue of Our Time?"

Dr. Alethia Jones