Illiberal Immigration

Victor Davis Hanson

7-7-2011

The old liberal ideal of a racially blind, melting-pot society is dead.

Recently, in symbolic fashion, spectators of Mexican ancestry in Pasadena’s Rose Bowl did not merely cheer on the Mexican national soccer team in a game against the U.S. national team — such nostalgia would be natural and understandable for recent immigrants — but went much further and also jeered American players and, indeed, references to the United States.

Which was the home team?

Was America to be appreciated for accepting poor aliens, or resented for not granting them amnesty? Is the idea of the United States to be conveniently booed or opportunistically thanked — depending on whether you are watching a soccer match or, for example, entering a Los Angeles emergency room with a life-threatening injury?

This otherwise insignificant but Orwellian incident reminds us that illegal immigration in the 21st century is becoming an illiberal enterprise.

Consider the prevailing myth of Mexico as America’s “partner.â€