As the immigration debate continues, the San Francisco Chronicle weighed in Sunday with a lengthy front-page story, reporting that “The current migration of Mexicans and Central Americans to the United States is one of the largest diasporas in modern history.”
The Chronicle reported, “Roughly 10 percent of Mexico’s population of about 107 million is now living in the United States,” and that “One in every seven Mexican workers” migrates here.
Noting that “Mass migration from Mexico began more than a century ago,” the Chronicle added “It is unlikely to ebb anytime soon,” with Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute, telling the paper, “There is no scenario outside of catastrophic attack on the United States that would make immigration stop.”
The article included a bevy of thought-provoking statistics highlighting the sheer size of the migration — last year, for example, migrant workers sent $20 billion back home to Mexico — and brought outraged conservatives out in droves.
“The San Francisco Chronicle, no right-wing rag, points out some figures that should give us pause at the scope of the illegal alien problem in the U.S.,” wrote Curiouser and Curiouser. “This IS an invasion.” “This does not strike me as healthy,” wrote John Hawkins at Right Wing News. “Clearly, having so many illegal immigrants coming into this country is not in the long-term interests of the United States.”
“The president, the Democrats, and the ‘amnesty for illegals’ Republicans (like Indiana’s Richard Lugar) are betraying the people of the United States by allowing this to continue,” opined Rick Hale, vowing never to “vote for any of them again”: “This is a moment in our history that will determine whether our great country will continue to exist or will become something else entirely.”
In the heartland, Brian at Iowa Voice cited Americans’ consistent statements “as being strongly in favor of securing the border FIRST, and THEN taking on immigration reform” to bolster his argument that “We simply cannot do a thing about Mexico (or any other Latin American nation) until we first stop this invasion, and we certainly shouldn’t be trying to tackle immigration reform until we get the border under control.”
“If I was 100 percent certain that we’d never, ever have this problem again,” Brian continued, “that we were dead serious about our immigration policies and protecting our border, then I would support granting some form of amnesty to the 10-20 million illegals already here.” (Most estimates place the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. at around 11 or 12 million.)
Frankly, we were not taken aback by the story — is anyone really surprised that Latin Americans are flocking to the economic bounty offered by the United States?
The Squiggler, a “libertarian pragmatist” who has been well aware of illegal immigration while living near California’s southern border since 1967, was thinking along the same lines.
“No question there is a problem,” wrote the blogger. “Whether it is really at the crisis proportions the latest round of news cycles has made it out to be or that some far-right bloggers want it to be is a matter for you to decide.”
Edward B. Colby was a writer at CJR Daily.