Charley, if You Could Hear It Now: Immigration

CHARLEY, IF YOU COULD HEAR IT NOW: Immigration

This blog site had it beginnings with a re-reading of Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck's TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY. In l960, Steinbeck and CHARLEY, his French poodle, made a three month trip around the United States to rediscover the country which he had been writing about, but a country with which he said he had lost touch. In the course of his journey he wrote about many of his observations which as I said in a previous blog ranged from advances in mobile homes, to tree hugging on the west coast, to witnessing an ugly racial demonstration in New Orleans. This posting reflects how the immigration issue has morphed over the half century since Steinbeck and Charley made their journey.


From "Canucks" to "secure the borders"

One of Steinbeck's early destinations was Aroostook County, Maine. He had heard about its potatoes but said that he had never met anyone who had actually been there. For his trip he had a specially designed pickup truck with a slide-in camper, giving the rig the name "Rocinante" after Don Quixote's horse.

When he arrived in northernmost Maine, he was in new geographic territory but within a familiar personal context--migrant farm labor. His early years living in California and his writings were sympathetically built around such workers, whether field hands from Mexico or "Okies" fleeing the l930s drought of the American great plains.

The highlight of his Aroostook visit was an evening with a group of "Canucks" he crowded into "Rocinante" for beer, brandy, and soda pop. It was evident that he liked both the people and the gathering, using such terms as a "hardy people," "nice looking people," "very nice people but formal". He even lauded the smell of their soup. In the course of their conversation, Steinbeck asked about any trouble with immigration people at the border, concluding that the formal rules of entry "seemed to relax during the harvest season." In his final appraisal of the visit he said, "Rocinante took on a glow it never quite lost." ". . . I never saw them again. But I like them."

It was an experience he could not repeat today. Potato harvesting in Aroostook County has since transitioned from French Canadians, to local kids hired during the school harvest break, to mechanization. The few French Canadians still coming to the area are mostly found harvesting trees, and his limited French language ability would would have to be changed to Spanish. Today the primary source of field workers are Hispanics who enter Maine from the south and follow crop harvesting northward from blueberries to broccoli to potatoes.

But more significant than these changes affecting that corner of the country is the larger, highly controversial issue of illegal immigration which has become a major flash point in our body politic. Such controversy is not new, but it has taken on a new virulence since 9/11 and subsequent efforts to overhaul immigration policy to deal with an estimated 12 million illegal persons living in the country, primarily Hispanics from Mexico and Central America.

The issue currently has its ground zero in Arizona with its law, being challenged by the federal government, to cut off illegal immigration into that state.

Immigration policy and controversy have a long history beginning with the writing of the Constitution and its provisions for the importation of slaves. Soon after the Constitution was in effect a law was enacted in 1790 to restrict naturalization to free white persons of good moral character. With an influx of Catholics from Germany and Ireland in the mid-19th century the focus was on ways to halt the immigration which was seen as hostile to the country's Protestant social and cultural values. Out of this concern came the Know Nothing Movement, given that name because when asked about activities of the semi-secret organization, members would say they "know nothing". That movement evolved into the American Party which disintegrated over the pro- and anti-slavery conflict, but the nativist issues it raised did not disappear.

With the next great wave of immigration from southern and eastern Europe (Jews, Italians, Poles, and Slavs) later in the 1800s and into the 1900s, along with anti-Asian feelings, the nativist concern re-emerged and ultimately found its way into law in the l920s with passage of national-origins based immigration. The policy discriminated against the entry of those perceived as undesirable--southern and eastern Europeans. This was the general background on immigration policy that existed when Steinbeck set out in l960.

It wasn't until five years later, in l965, that the discrimination of the 40-year old national origins quotas was ended and immigration policy was based on a more neutral policy of family relationships that gave preference to immigrants sponsored by families already living here. The next big step came in l986, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan when policy was enacted which gave about three million illegal immigrants amnesty to remain here.

Then came 9/11 and a greatly heightened concern about protecting the borders against infiltration by terrorists, a concern which has now merged with the issue of illegal immigration involving, by some estimates, 12 million persons, primarily Hispanics. This clash erupted in the period 2005-2008 when one side sought to change immigration policy to lay out a path for the illegal immigrants to eventually gain citizenship. Generally, such changes were advocated by liberal Democrats with the support of President George W. Bush and some Republican lawmakers representing areas impacted with Hispanic residents, voting and nonvoting.

Opposed, and again generally, were primarily conservative Republican lawmakers backed by diverse outside groups who focused on enforcement of current deportation laws and used anti-amnesty rhetoric as the rallying cry. The issue gained new life through the political unrest generated by the Tea Party movement which sprang forth in 2009, espousing that a far right ideology be imposed on a basket of some traditional conservative issues including a nativist-based immigration policy.

Then came the Arizona law this year and put the issue at or near the top of the national agenda. And, as shown by that law and President Obama's renewed interest in immigration reform, some former advocates of reform have now become outspoken opponents, the best example being Senator John McCain of Arizona who is being challenged in his party's primary election by a former Congressman who is aggressively courting far right activists and adherents.

Soon after leaving Maine, Steinbeck sought to enter Canada as a shortcut westward but was advised at the entry port that he could enter Canada but would not be able to re-enter the United States because he did not have a rabies vaccination certificate for Charley. Today, dog or no dog, border crossing is more complex, reflecting how 9/11 and terrorism have become intertwined with immigration policy. In l960, one could enter Canada and return with just an oral declaration of U.S. citizenship. Now re-entry to the United States requires a passport or some other acceptable photo credential. And what was once heralded as the world's longest unprotected border is now partially patrolled by unarmed predator aircraft.

Thus, over the 50 years since Steinbeck traveled with Charley, immigration has evolved from a low key economic and fairness issue to a highly charged "to the barricades" ideological controversy about the country's economic, social, and cultural future. Add to this the issue of border protection against terrorists and Steinbeck's l960 experiences with the "Canucks" and his frustrated effort to enter Canada seem pleasantly nostalgic. Immigration policy has now become a poisonous political issue. Charley, if you could hear it now.