Uneasy Rhetoric

I’m a bit late to the whole immigration debate, but bear with me. My own opinions on the issue of illegal immigration run the gamut from understanding that it is against the law to understanding that illegal immigrants are an integral part of our economy. At its core though, I believe that illegal immigrants are pursuing, in their own way, a version of the American dream. Sure, previous generations of immigrants did it the legal way (although there’s always been plenty of illegal immigration) but they had to come across on boats, in an era before massive container shipping, and that creates a funnel effect. If Ireland had shared a land border with the United States, do you think the Irish would have bothered coming through Ellis Island?

In fact, my own take on illegal immigration and what we should do about it tends to follow the advice outlined in this excellent post by Michael Hiltzik:

It’s plain that a sensible immigration policy has four prongs: 1/ Set existing illegals on the path of legal residence and citizenship, at a price in cash or commitment to work; 2/Offer a similar deal to newcomers; 3/ Sanction employers who hire outside these two categories; and 4/ Secure the borders. All must be implemented simultaneously, or none will work. By the way, if 1-3 are implemented, here’s betting that 4 will become a lot easier, because there will be real incentives to enter and work legally.

But what I want to write about briefly is the use of the Mexican flag in all of the protests I’ve seen on the news. Conservatives have certainly noticed it. And, like them, it makes me uneasy, but for different reasons.

Waving the Mexican flag is a strong show of solidarity with those illegal immigrants from Mexico. Except they aren’t all from Mexico. Thousands are from many other places from El Salvador and Peru to Canada and Great Britain. I realize I’m splitting hairs here, because it is the concept of solidarity that is important. Yet, waving the Mexican flag plays into the popular shorthand of referring to all illegal immigrants as “Mexicans” (and its corollary, all Mexicans as “illegal immigrants”). If you haven’t heard the term “Mexican” used in this way, you’re living in a bubble.

Instead, these protesters should be waving the American flag. That’s right, the Stars and Stripes. The same flag that thousands of NASCAR spectators wave every Sunday. The same flag that flies over our governmental institutions. The same flag that conservative politicians wrap themselves in when they want to talk about something called the “American way of life.”

Because, as our own President, Governor Schwarzenegger, and countless others have stated, we are a nation of immigrants. I’m as white as they come and I can only trace my ancestors in the United States back four, maybe five generations, at most. And guess what? Some of them didn’t come here speaking English either.

I can understand why some on the left would shy away from using our own flag in their protests. It has become a symbol, for some, of unthinking patriotism. It is a standard under which our belligerent government marches and in the name of which it wages a perpetual war against an enemy without a country, without a flag, and without even a coherent ideology. (Iraq was a way to slap a “regular” war face onto the war on terrorism.)

But waving the Mexican flag sends the wrong message. This isn’t a festival celebrating Mexican culture. It’s a protest of American policies and the goal should be to show that there are thousands upon thousands of Americans who do not agree with draconian border policies and with policies that throw away the futures of entire families in the name of cheap labor. There are thousands of Americans who believe that those who are here should be treated humanely, should be treated as the humans they are.

Mr. and Ms. Average American see a sea of bodies waving dozens of Mexican flags and they think “them,” not “us,” not “we.”

So wave the Stars and Stripes. You’ll demonstrate American unity and you’ll still show solidarity with the immigrants. They will see the sea of red, white, and blue and will understand that we are not saying “we are one of you,” but instead “you are one of us.”

(For a previous post on flags and emblems, see here. Feather in your cap if you can tell me where my title comes from.)