Papers, Please!
"As American Jews,.....we must be alarmed at the notion of Arizona police officers stopping Latinos and asking , 'Papers, please.'....Not long ago in Europe, Jews were forced to carry identification papers and lived in fear of being stopped and questioned. The singling out of Jews in Europe led to a horrific end. What will become of immigrants in this country?"
Editor's Desk Column by Elana Kahn-Oren in Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, May, 2010, page 4.
Since all decent people, especially Jews, hate the Nazis, one way to turn people against a particular policy is to link it somehow to Nazism. Recall Rush Limbaugh's "feminazis" and the hideous Hitler-style moustache on photos of Barack Obama flaunted by protesters just a year ago.
In the same spirit, Mrs. Kahn-Oren would have us abhor the new Arizona law that requires police to enforce immigration law, since officers would ask to see "papers" just like the Nazis did in occupied Europe. (Actually, even the term "papers" reeks of World War II; Arizona officers would be satisfied with a driver's license, state ID or immigration "green card", none of which are really "papers." The same laminated ID cards that we all use to board a plane, rent a car or cash a check will verify American citizenship, should it be questioned.)
A Jew without the right paper (such as a certificate of Swedish citizenship) in Nazi-occupied Europe would be deported to Auschwitz, whereas an illegal (aka "undocumented") alien caught in the US would be deported back to his home country. Is that a distinction worth mentioning? The quoted column does not.
Instead, Mrs. Kahn-Oren goes on to write, "We Jews have an obligation to stand up for others....register our protest to this new law and work to prevent other such attempts to harm undocumented immigrants." By her own estimate, there about 460,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona, nearly the population of Milwaukee. Since they cannot get jobs with legitimate businesses (per federal law since 2006), most of them subsist in the "underground economy" of day labor for cash, which means they pay no income tax. But they do place a strain on the public services provided by the taxpayers of Arizona (and the nation): education, medical, water, and the criminal justice system. The presence of a large unskilled workforce also tends to depress wages for labor, which hurts the native working class of the state.
At the end of the column, Mrs Kahn-Oren calls for "comprehensive and compassionate reform" of our immigration code, without specifying the details of the reform she wants. In other words, we Jews should be "on the side of the angels" in our compassion for the illegal immigrants, and oppose a law intended to alleviate the burden that they have placed on the citizens of our sister state. I have more compassion for the people of Arizona.
Editor's Desk Column by Elana Kahn-Oren in Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, May, 2010, page 4.
Since all decent people, especially Jews, hate the Nazis, one way to turn people against a particular policy is to link it somehow to Nazism. Recall Rush Limbaugh's "feminazis" and the hideous Hitler-style moustache on photos of Barack Obama flaunted by protesters just a year ago.
In the same spirit, Mrs. Kahn-Oren would have us abhor the new Arizona law that requires police to enforce immigration law, since officers would ask to see "papers" just like the Nazis did in occupied Europe. (Actually, even the term "papers" reeks of World War II; Arizona officers would be satisfied with a driver's license, state ID or immigration "green card", none of which are really "papers." The same laminated ID cards that we all use to board a plane, rent a car or cash a check will verify American citizenship, should it be questioned.)
A Jew without the right paper (such as a certificate of Swedish citizenship) in Nazi-occupied Europe would be deported to Auschwitz, whereas an illegal (aka "undocumented") alien caught in the US would be deported back to his home country. Is that a distinction worth mentioning? The quoted column does not.
Instead, Mrs. Kahn-Oren goes on to write, "We Jews have an obligation to stand up for others....register our protest to this new law and work to prevent other such attempts to harm undocumented immigrants." By her own estimate, there about 460,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona, nearly the population of Milwaukee. Since they cannot get jobs with legitimate businesses (per federal law since 2006), most of them subsist in the "underground economy" of day labor for cash, which means they pay no income tax. But they do place a strain on the public services provided by the taxpayers of Arizona (and the nation): education, medical, water, and the criminal justice system. The presence of a large unskilled workforce also tends to depress wages for labor, which hurts the native working class of the state.
At the end of the column, Mrs Kahn-Oren calls for "comprehensive and compassionate reform" of our immigration code, without specifying the details of the reform she wants. In other words, we Jews should be "on the side of the angels" in our compassion for the illegal immigrants, and oppose a law intended to alleviate the burden that they have placed on the citizens of our sister state. I have more compassion for the people of Arizona.
Labels: Arizona, Chronicle, immigration, Jews, Nazis
posted by Gerald S Glazer at 9:12 AM
2 Comments:
Well reasoned and eloquently written! You should submit it as aletter to the editor.
Re: "At the end of the column, Mrs Kahn-Oren calls for 'comprehensive' and compassionate reform" of our immigration code, without specifying the details of the reform she wants," I think this is so typical of the liberal mentality: advocating based on noble sentiment without thinking through the real-world ramifications.
Good article, but many issues were not addressed. Ms Kahn-Oren also mischaracterized the Arizona law and there were many other problems with her analogy of illegal alens with the Jews of Europe in the 1930's and 1940's.
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