That is Stephen Miller pictured above, and here's the headline that prompted this blog posting: "Miller Cites Children Of Immigrants As A Problem." The article appeared in The New York Times, back near the end of last month - on the "day before Christmas," as a matter of fact. Lovely holiday sentiments!
Naturally, I was interested in finding out about the news behind the headline. Specifically, I wanted to know the nature of the "problem" that Miller has identified. Well, here it is. According to Miller, "seven decades of immigration has produced millions of people who take more than they give." The Times' article does immediately note that this assertion "has been refuted by years of economic data." As Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute puts it, "study after study has demonstrated the upward mobility of children of immigrants."
Upon reviewing Wikipedia's write up on Miller (click the link to his name, in the first line, above, if you'd like to review it yourself), it is clear to me that Miller has zealously objected to "immigrants" since his high school days. My observation is that when people start deciding that any particular "group" is causing problems, and demands that members of such group be penalized, it is appropriate to demand that the focus should be on the behavior objected to, as opposed to declaring that a particular "group" is, ipso facto, causing the identified problem.
"Taking more than they give," Miller's stated concern, could be defined, I suppose, as applying to those persons who receive more in government "benefits" than they have contributed in taxes, or who have made some other demonstrable contribution to our society that offsets what they have received. Candidly, that measurement would put lots of non-immigrants in the same category as the "immigrants" that Miller denounces and derides. You have probably heard the designator "white trash." If we are going to object to "immigrants," for the reason specified by Miller, we should probably start trying to deal with impecunious white people, too.
In fact, lest anyone mistake my personal position, I do not think we should be trying to get rid of "immigrants," or poor white people, or any other "group." My continuing claim is that we are "in this together," and that includes ALL of us. And in case it hasn't become clear to anyone who is reading this, I would argue that we are "in this together" not only in the United States of America, but in "the world."
If it is true that the entire world is, in fact, "in it together," as I think the threat of nuclear war, and massive starvation, and desertification, and global warming, with all of its anticipated impacts, including mass extinctions, make clear, we need to make allies with everyone, and figure out how to work together as "people of this planet," not glory in efforts to pick out groups to belittle and denounce.
The article that prompted this comment was published, as I disclosed earlier, on "the day before Christmas." You'll read my comment after Christmas has come and gone, but let's try remembering that "Christmas Spirit" that we heard about on December 25th, and make it a year round thing.
Mr. Miller is invited to try that out, himself!
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