In 2006 Congress based the Secure Fence Act, a bill that resonated with many as reminiscent of the Berlin Wall and perhaps even the Great Wall of China. In fact, the act did more than just provide funding and authority for an expansion of reinforced walls near the border and American population centers. It provided money for a study on the feasibility of such things–on the northern border. As it turns out, that border is 3,987 miles of real estate as compared to a measly 1,933 on the south end. Given the length and cost of that border, it was clearly unfeasible to wall of that entire section of land. Besides, we only want to keep undesirables out, and undesirables don’t look like Canadians now do they?
The fact is the entire border security apparatus is, to a certain extent, an illusion. Walls and fences can no more keep a determined immigrant from entering our country than walls and fences can keep a determined criminal from entering your home. When your situation is bad enough, you will do anything to get out. Worst still, walls are symbolic gestures that tell those beyond the wall that they are not welcome. While some will tell you that walls suggest you are welcome if you come in the ‘right’ way, those same people fail to mention or perhaps even realize that the right way often doesn’t allow the people trying to come in to get in at all.
We, as a nation, don’t want immigrants from south of the border. This is not my personal opinion but a reflection of a shrinking majority viewpoint. The fear is twofold. On the one hand we are afraid that the incoming immigrants, unlike Canadians, will be unwilling to assimilate to our culture. The ‘us’ in that is the dominant caucasian American culture that created American government, American idealism, and strives to build these walls to exclude others. The second point of reasoning is the theory that those who come to our country do so for a free ride or to rob the ‘haves’. Of course there are those people. Heck, we have those people now and they are neither immigrants nor can they be categorized by race or former nationality. With all the good that trickles through the borders there will be the bad. However, with that bad comes a set of hard working and determined people who strive for nothing less than the American dream which so many of us here have either falsely achieved or abandoned in favor of easier goals, like being home in time to watch The Real Housewives of Orange County.
When thinking about immigrant perceptions I am constantly reminded of the divide between college and pro sports. Fans remind me that college athletes work harder, because they’re the have nots. They are the ones who are fighting for the chance to earn the professional roster spot and the big pay day. In this scenario we Americans are the pro athletes who, fat on our big pay day, don’t play with the love and drive of the college athlete.
One guess to who the college athlete is in this scenario.