Immigrants: If you can't beat 'em, get rid of 'em

SAN DIEGO -- The anti-immigrant crowd should just be honest and finally own up to the real reason they want to keep out foreigners.

It's fear of competition, silly. Same as it always was.

Oops, I shouldn't be talking. I've been put on notice. No sooner had President Trump sparked a national discussion about immigration than I was apparently ejected from the boardroom.

An irate reader recently wrote an email to a newspaper that runs this column with some not-so-friendly advice: "Navarrette needs to conflict himself out of writing articles about this subject."

When the subject is immigration, the alleged "conflict" stems from two things: the reality that, for the last few decades, most immigrants to the United States have come through Mexico; and the fact that I'm Mexican American.

Some folks add two and two together -- and get five.

Over the years, whenever sexual harassment is in the news, I have heard female colleagues complain that men consider them too "emotional" to comment on the issue objectively.

Today, the few Latino journalists out there are no doubt considered too emotional to write objectively about immigration.

We're told that conservative talk-radio hosts and Fox News personalities whose collective knowledge of the issue could barely fill a margarita glass with room left over for ice cubes have the conversation well in hand, and no one needs to hear from us.

But as a Mexican American, the "American" ingredient -- which was on display at the Boston Tea Party, and the marches for women's suffrage, and the civil rights movement -- makes me ornery and not so good at taking orders.

So let's get back into it -- with a little historical context.

Americans have always portrayed immigrants as inferior. The real national motto is "There Goes the Neighborhood."

A reader of mine recently complained in an email that arrivals from Latin America "reproduce like rats." Another said that today's immigrants "will never assimilate into this country, will never learn the English language and will turn this ONCE great nation into a Third World piece of crap."

But what if the narrative is upside down? Immigrants often make natives look bad by comparison. Next to them, we can seem spoiled, lazy and entitled. It's not that immigrants are inferior. It's that, by working harder and dreaming bigger, they make the rest of us feel inferior.

In the 1750s, as far as a certain British American inventor in Philadelphia was concerned, the real threat to civilization wasn't Mexicans. It was Germans.

"Why should the Palatine Boors [Germans] be suffered to swarm into our Settlements and, by herding together, establish their Language and Manners, to the Exclusion of ours?" wrote Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father and anti-German bigot. "Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs any more than they can acquire our Complexion?"

Ironically, Franklin himself didn't mind being "Germanized" if he could profit. Historians record that he published books and pamphlets in German, and that he tried and failed four times to publish a German-language newspaper. Before long, German publishers had set up shop and they were competing with Franklin for that market. He wanted to eliminate the competition.

Now, nearly 270 years later, who in their right mind would want to compete head-to-head with the likes of 18-year-old Emily Salazar?

The daughter of Guatemalan immigrants, Salazar is graduating summa cum laude from Roosevelt High School in Fresno, California, with a GPA of 4.32. But, before she gets her diploma, she will have already earned an associate's degree. While attending high school, she was -- thanks to a dual-credit program -- also attending nearby Fresno City College. Too bad her father isn't here to see her graduate -- twice. He died of cancer a few years ago. But Salazar persevered. She applied to Stanford University, got accepted, and was given a full ride.

How would your son or daughter stack up against this overachiever?

It's no wonder that so many Americans want to keep immigrants -- and their children -- out of this country. It's much easier than having to compete with them once they get here.

========

Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, "Navarrette Nation," is available through every podcast app.