Jeff Simpson hopes hysteria over immigrants won’t influence voters

Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007 | 1:52 a.m.

Immigration is looking like it will be the hot-button issue in next year's presidential and congressional elections, and that's not a good thing.

Rabble-rousing television hosts such as CNN's Lou Dobbs and scores of conservative radio talk-show hosts are tapping into one of the sorriest veins in American public opinion: Fear of immigrants.

Sure, these populists say they are worried about the security threat posed by porous borders, and they swear their fervor isn't stirred by ethnic or racial fear.

I don't buy it. I see their alarm as a continuation of an American tradition that has, unfortunately, been around for hundreds of years.

The history includes: The Know Nothings and their foolish suspicion of the Irish in the early 19th century, the Ku Klux Klan and its irrational hatred of Catholic and Jewish immigrants in the early 20th century, and the solid majority of Americans during World War II who believed the federal government was prudent to strip American citizens of Japanese ancestry of their property and intern them in guarded camps.

It's easy to get folks fired up about the supposed threats posed by immigrants. Even though it is the low road, it is an easy road.

And that's why presidential candidates are hectored for their positions on nonfederal issues such as whether illegal immigrants should be given driver's licenses. And why candidates looking for an edge use immigration as a wedge issue.

For American business and labor unions immigration is also a hot-button issue.

Business executives know their industries rely on low-paid immigrant labor, but the Republican candidates many of those executives support are wary of crossing the millions of simple-minded voters who would oppose candidates who advocate allowing illegal immigrants a way to remain working in their jobs while pursuing legal status.

Labor is also split, with many old-line trade unions opposing a system that would legalize additional competition for jobs, while unions with large numbers of immigrants view crackdowns as discriminatory.

I support common-sense security improvements that would make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to come to the United States and get jobs, such as fixing gaps in control of American borders and using modern database software to make sure that more than one worker doesn't use the same identification to prove his legal residency.

I don't support sending productive residents back to their countries of origin. We should come up with a system that allows workers to stay here while they apply for naturalization and, eventually, citizenship. And we should allow entry to more folks who are waiting overseas for their chance at legal immigration.

America benefits from the contributions of immigrants, as does Las Vegas. The resort and construction industries, in particular, benefit from extensive employment of immigrants.

Those workers are our neighbors, and they are an important part of the Las Vegas economy. We would be in a world of hurt without them.

When businessmen and women consider which political candidates they should back, they should remember how important immigrants are to our local and national economies and avoid those candidates who take the low road of anti-immigrant hysteria.

It's time to break with a dishonorable American tradition.