Two years after Swift raid, issue is still a ‘dance’
Chris Casey
The Tribune
The theme of immigration really hasn’t changed much through the decades or the centuries, according to a biblical scholar who spoke Thursday in Greeley.
It’s rooted in the push and pull of labor needs between nations. It often evolves into a dance between pragmatic and emotional concerns, the scholar said.
M. Daniel Carroll, a professor of the Old Testament at Denver Seminary, spoke to about 25 members of the Weld Ministerial Fellowship at The Rock Church in downtown Greeley. His presentation came on the eve of the second anniversary of the 2006 immigration raid at the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Greeley.
Carroll, who is of Guatemalan and Irish descent, discussed the origins of the “Hispanic” label, outlined historical politics that brokered and barred foreign labor, and gently promoted tolerance for illegal immigrants while acknowledging that people have deep-seated “nativist responses” on the issue.
He said he prefers the term “undocumented” to “illegal,” because in his view, the majority of immigrants are not criminals but hard workers who lack proper documents.
“Once you start using the word ‘illegal’ it can really raise the heat in the room,” Carroll said.
He described the tension as a dance — between dependence on foreign laborers and the people who turn against them when their numbers swell, as is the case with Latino immigrants who are now such a “massive population — it’s no longer circumscribed or cute” to native residents.
Carroll cited the U.S. government’s quotas on Irish and Italian immigrants in the late 19th century. He pointed out that in 1881 the U.S., which until then recruited Chinese to build railroads, passed the Chinese Exclusion Act that barred Chinese laborers from entering the country. The act was rescinded in 1943.
In the 20th century, he said, Mexicans were recruited to backfill field and factory jobs as Americans went overseas to fight in World War I and World War II.
“Assimilation is always a dance, and there’s always two people in the dance,” Carroll said. “It gets messy, but it’s all very natural.”
He said immigration law in the United States is convoluted and contradictory, because it’s layered upon years of prior laws.
One area of contradiction, Carroll said, is the recent federal trend to conduct workplace raids.
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