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Talkin' 'Bout Immigration
Massachusetts has been a state of cities and a state of immigrants. Is that changing?

by Andrew Varnon - June 29, 2006

Between the Lines
Judging by the latest census report, which shows that Massachusetts is the only state in the nation that isn't gaining in population, you wouldn't think immigration would be a big issue here--especially given our proximity to the Mexican border. Luckily for us, we have a governor who is much more in tune with the red state zeitgeist than we are. Would we have come up with the idea of enlisting state troopers as immigration cops on our own? We think not. All kidding aside, the appearance of immigration as an election-year issue seems a little puzzling. It isn't hard to guess why Mitt Romney has asked the federal government to give Massachusetts State Police the ability to arrest illegal immigrants. He's running for president, after all, and he wants to score points with the Tom Tancredo wing of the Republican Party.
But mudslinging being directed at Attorney General Tom Reilly for being "soft on immigration" is rather strange. Reilly's critics are saying the attorney general and would-be governor should crack down harder on employers who hire illegal immigrants, but Reilly says it's a federal issue, not a state issue. Reilly has also taken lumps for supporting in-state tuition at state colleges and universities for children of illegal immigrants who otherwise meet the requirements of Massachusetts residency. Reilly, who is himself the son of immigrants, says not to do so is just mean.

O f course, Massachusetts has a long history of politics relating to immigration. The Know Nothing Party swept the state in the 1854 elections, fueled by anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant sentiment. For various reasons, the Know Nothings disappeared with the rise of the Republican Party and Massachusetts became a Republican stronghold. But by the presidential election of 1928, the tide had turned, and Massachusetts was one of the few states to cast its electoral votes for big city Democrat Al Smith, a Catholic.

In 1928, Massachusetts boasted 10 of the 50 most populous cities in the United States. The election showed that the Bay State had become an urbanized state with urban values, and presaged the Democratic Party as the party of urban values. And cities have historically thrived on a liberal immigration policy, harboring diversity and offering opportunity.

Today, cities in Massachusetts are on shaky ground. Second-tier cities like Springfield and Holyoke are struggling, having lost their manufacturing base to cheaper labor markets and their middle class to the suburbs. The Republicans and their candidate, Lieutenant Kerry Healey, play to middle class insecurities by offering a "law and order" rhetoric on immigration. And Democrats, who haven't held won a governor's race since 1986, are increasingly turning toward the suburbs to find votes.

Is Tom Reilly wrong on immigration, as his critics say he is? If that's true, then it marks a shift once again in Massachusetts politics. When the state begins to spend its resources on cracking down on illegal immigrants and saving taxpayer dollars by pulling back the social safety net, it will mean Democrats are turning away from their historic urban values and toward a more suburban outlook.

That's a direction that Mitt Romney would like to see the state go. But is it the direction we want to go?