More on Immigration

I'm not a big fan of Jen Psaki, the former White House press secretary who anchors a show on MSNBC these days. But I usually catch at least part of her Monday evenings when she's "in the seat" instead of Chris Hayes, and this week she ended that show with Jonathan Katz as her guest. 

He's the independent journalist who caught Alabama Sen. Katie Britt's big ol' lie in the Republican response to the State of the Union Address. They spent most of the interview talking about that, but at the end, right around the 3:30 mark in this video, Psaki asked Katz to name one thing people say about immigration that drives him the most crazy. 

I love his answer. 

My partial transcription (some of this is quoted, some paraphrased) is that the victims of the dysfunction at the border, the backlog are the immigrants. But in the U.S., almost everyone, including Democrats, talks about it as the opposite—as if "Americans," or "your children," are the victims. 

People coming to the U.S. are fleeing terrible things, he said, and they're being demonized and weaponized in our politics and it hurts everybody.

It reminded me of a book that I read several years ago but never got around to posting about: "They take our jobs!" and 20 other myths about immigration by Aviva Chomsky (Beacon Press, 2007). It came out 17 years ago, but looking through the chapter titles, you would have no idea that it wasn't written last week. Except the myths have gained strength, if anything.

Which reminds me — the St. Croix County board of supervisors voted 15–4 yesterday to pause refugee resettlements, as I previewed on Monday. Even though no one has proposed settling anyone in their county and the supervisors don't legally have jurisdiction over the decision. 

At the meeting where the vote was taken, this happened, according to Star Tribune reporter Maya Rao:

Residents filled the main chambers and overflow rooms, as they have in recent meetings featuring hours of public comment. Some shook their heads and snickered when one supervisor recited the famous quote on the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Supervisors repeatedly noted that refugees are approved to come here legally and unrelated to the crisis at the border.

Sounds like a very welcoming meeting to attend. I wonder how reporter Rao felt being there. 

I also wonder if the folks who snickered can be banned from visiting the Statue of Liberty.