Despite the do-next-to-nothing 113th Congress, bipartisan immigration reform appears to be moving forward, if haltingly.
President Obama’s proposal, which would open a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country, was met mostly with praise in January when it was unveiled. Support came from key Republican and Democratic lawmakers as well as Jewish groups, such as the American Jewish Committee, the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism, the Anti-Defamation League and B’nai B’rith.
This week on May 1, to mark International Workers’ Day, liberal Jewish groups such as Bend the Arc and the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs took part in marches calling for immigration reform.
When such reform will see the light of day is anyone’s guess, but it’s encouraging to see support for the issue across the partisan divide.
It is disheartening that the topic of immigration pushes so many buttons. We hear today nativist refrains from bygone days, when they were lobbed at Irish, Chinese and Eastern European immigrants: They will take our jobs. They will dilute our culture. They will drain our resources.
That was fear-driven hokum then, and it is hokum now.
For evidence, see our story on page 2 about the impact Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany had on the intellectual climate at U.C. Berkeley. Student researchers recently examined the lives of 70 Jewish scholars driven by Hitler into exile, all of whom made contributions to the arts and sciences, as well as to Bay Area life in general.
In those tumultuous pre-war years, when many Americans argued against opening up immigration from Europe, the U.S. government and institutions such as U.C. Berkeley welcomed these esteemed academics. If only more refugees fleeing fascism had been allowed in.
The precise shape of any immigration reform bill is hard to predict. It will no doubt include beefed-up border security and create a mechanism for immigrants already here either to become citizens or remain in the country without fear of deportation.
We hope it also will include other features, such as economic protections for immigrants, so that they no longer need to live in the shadows of the economy or be subject to the whims of unscrupulous employers.
Most important, immigration reform demands a new attitude. Most of these people came here to better their lives and, by extension, the lives of all Americans. Just about every Jew in America can trace his or her ancestry back to immigrants, and we don’t have to go back too far to do so.
We must provide for new immigrants the kind of welcome our own ancestors had, or should have had, when they arrived on these same shores.