Your Papers, Please

Yesterday Daily Kos carried a diary about the Republican Party's racist, reactionary immigration agenda very much worth reading. It featured California Neanderthal Elton Gallegly, politically endangered because his own California base is now a Hispanic-plurality district. Gallegy, has been stirred from his usually comatose state and arose from his lethargy upon being told that Republicans like himself are going to become extinct in the next few years because of the rapid growth of non-white, primarily Hispanic, voters.

As the Chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee, Rep. Gallegly is one of the "Three Amigos" guiding the Republican Party’s immigration strategy in Washington, along with Texas Rep. Lamar Smith and Iowa Rep. Steve King.  Their goal: Drive undocumented immigrants out of the country.

The strategy seems to be working in Arizona, although much to the detriment of that state. Will Bunch has a mesmerizing chapter, "Phoenix In The Ashes," in his latest book, The Backlash and I want to go over a couple of passages in light of Gallegly's latest outbursts. You see, we may all feel like we're Wisonsinites; they all feel that they're Arizonans.

A chief sponsor [of Arizona's racial profiling bill], GOP state representative Jack Kavanagh, told the Arizona Republic that "our intention is to make Arizona a very uncomfortable place for them so that they leave or never come here in the first place."

...[A] study in 2007 by the immigration policy manager for the University of Arizona, Judith Gans, found that an estimated 280,000 undocumented workers brought in nearly $2.4 billion in tax revenue for Arizona but used just $1.4 billion in government services, for a net gain for the state of $940 million.

Gans told a panel that year that an Arizona crackdown on undocumented workers would mean that "we're deciding as a matter of policy to shrink the economy." And that is exactly what happened... From the peak of the housing boom in 2007 until Obama's inauguration in 2009, the undocumented population of Arizona dropped by an estimated 13%, but none of the supposed benefits of this immigration crackdown-- the end of the in-reality-nonexistent drain on government services, or more job opportunities for documented workers and native citizens-- had materialized. Instead, the state of Arizona was now so broke it was closing rest stops on the interstate.

Bunch comes to the conclusion-- much like I did after extensive interviews with Tea Party activists-- "that a primary motivator of the angry backlash across America is race."

Republican congressmen are divided into two camps on this-- actual dyed-in-the-wool racists like Steve King on the one hand, and then the ones like Gallegly who are afraid that the Republican Party itself is in jeopardy as the scapegoats win the right to vote. That also explains who the GOP is trying so hard right now to disenfranchise as many potential Democrats as possible. Rachel Maddow talked about that on her show Thursday night. In case you missed it...