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Dollars, Not Sense, Spur
Immigrant Scapegoating
JAMES D. BESSER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
ewish groups in Washing-
ton are spending a growing
proportion of their time
putting out fires on the im-
migration and refugee front. But
more and more, they're battling
brisk winds and an overabun-
dance of incendiary material.
Every week, it seems, Repub-
licans in Congress — with sur-
prising cooperation from some
Democrats — find new ways to
restrict government benefits for
immigrants, or to make it hard-
er for desperate refugees to get
into this country.
More and more, politicians use
subtly nativist rhetoric about
newcomers designed to play on
the public's ongoing desire for
scapegoats for a host of woes, real
and imagined.
Today, immigrants aren't
tarred by mainstream politicians
j
Mark Talisman, the former
Washington director for the
Council of Jewish Federations.
"Jewish leaders are making a lot
of noise about this trend — and
they're absolutely right to do so."
Lashing out against foreign-
ers is a long and dishonorable
tradition in American politics.
But the latest variant is more in-
sidious, Jewish leaders believe,
because it is less direct.
Increasingly, congressional
and administrative accountants
provide cover for cynical politi-
cians eager to win votes at home
and propel a sweeping conserv-
ative agenda that rejects the im-
portance of pluralism in
American democracy.
And too many other politicians
are willing to accept discrimina-
tion against vulnerable minori-
ties, a list topped by immigrants
. .
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for being dirty, immoral or com-
munistic, as in an earlier era. In-
stead, official discrimination is
justified on budgetary grounds,
a catch-all explanation that cov-
ers a variety of motives.
That dynamic — the cynical
manipulation of latent prejudices
by some political leaders, and the
increasing use of budget ledgers
to justify discriminatory actions
— is what scares the heck out of
Jewish leaders.
"It's chilling to hear outright
discrimination wrapped up in
budget-cutting pieties," said
and refugees, if it helps them
make tough budget decisions
without generating a politically
risky backlash.
An example: the drastic cuts
in services to elderly immigrants
included in last year's welfare re-
form bill.
Some legislators supported
those cuts because they played
well back home, or because they
provided a good opening shot in
the war to dismantle the nation's
social service infrastructure.
And many went along because
cutting aid to immigrants, even