THE FINEM cIDETt2OIT! ENJOY THESE FINE RESTAURANTS DURING Sporting Events • The Opera • Theatre • Or Just Because Rattlesnake is... • DETROIT'S ROMANTIC RIVERFRONT RESTAURANT • Jimmy Schmidts inventive cuisine • Riverfront and City View • Outdoor Patio • Great Steaks 300 River Place • 313-567-4400 I1 3E 0 cmzs g c30 0 z o At& N P U 267 Joseph Campau (at Franklin) 313-259-0909 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 . . 17::-/-arze.tpt,c- ri 1p( -r„, knao 100 W. Montcalm 313-961-1929 4265 Woodward 313-832-3200 * * * * * * the * Caucus * Club 150 W. Congress 313-965-4970 1435 Randolph 313-961-0707 4421 Woodward 313-832-5700 Cr) n Cf) AUTHENTIC GERMAN CUISINE LU The Rhinoceros 265 Riopelle • 259-2208 Lu D U_I 88 A BARBEQUE GRILLE UPSCALE, (1' OVWT IV': FOOD r OP THE SOUL 546 E. Lamed 313-965-1700 624 Brush Street 313-962-7067 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