Deconstructing Nazi Arguments Against Immigration
(Cover image source credit Robster16)
The title? Hell yes it's inflammatory. America has flirted with fascism several times in the past. The Red Scare, the Sedition Act of 1918, and now. You might say, "yeah, but those Trump supporters were a minority." Yes, so were the nazis. So, without further ado, the content:
"They're breaking the law!"
Yes, as did Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and countless others. Laws can be unjust. This also displays a complete lack of understanding of the difference between Laws, Ethics and Morals. There is no ethical or moral objection to immigration, authorized or no. It's a law, and one that many people think is unjust and racist. These people are also completely blind to the fact that abortion is lawful, but immoral in their eyes. Their only solution to THAT problem is to make the laws follow their morals, and ooooh boy I'm not going down that rabbit hole.
"We can't let everyone in!"
Why not?
No seriously, why not? American agriculture has a strong need for migrant labor. Drug smuggling is only a problem because of bad US drug policy. Every white person in this country is descended from immigrants. We don't have an overpopulation problem. We have SO MUCH empty space.
"Human trafficking!"
Another problem CREATED by the fact that we don't let people through without trouble. If you actually wanted to solve this problem, you would make crossing the border legal, so that the now-legal immigrants can inform on traffickers without risk to themselves.
"This is Obama's fault!"
Stop watching Fox News.
Also, we complained about Obama's immigration policies too, but he did direct ICE to prioritize deporting criminals instead of just everyone, which has been Trump's directive.
"This is the Democrats' fault!"
Last time I checked, Republicans controlled the White House and Congress.
Stop watching Fox News.
"Fake News!"
"They don't speak English!"
First of all, fuck you.
Secondly, America would greatly benefit from being more bilingual. More American businesses could expand their markets to the Spanish-speaking world, more translators get hired, it's all good.
"I'm not racist!"
Yeah, you kinda are. But you're not alone, American is and has been extremely racist. The whole fact that we have immigration quotas in the first place is because we don't like Chinese people, Catholics, Jews, you name it. Immigration policy has always been about keeping "others" out of the country. That's pretty racist.
"It's not my problem!"
"Nazi comparisons aren't fair!"
In 1939, the German ship MS St. Louis set sail for the USA with 900 Jewish refugees from Germany. They were denied entry to the United States, Canada and Cuba. They were forced back to Europe, where a quarter of them ended up dying in concentration camps. The United States was culpable for that action. The United States aided the Nazi murder of those people. At the time, there were a lot of Nazi sympathizers in the United States.
Read Umberto Eco's essay on Ur-Fascism and do some soul-searching, please.