The Illegal Immigration Debate and Racism

It is entertaining to watch Republicans complain about injecting accusations of racism in the immigration debate. I do think it's possible to be concerned about illegal immigration and not be motivated by racism or xenophobia; but when John Leo writes paragraphs like this, it's clear that there is an undercurrent of racism in some Republican arguments against illegal immigration.

High and continuous immigration is occurring under conditions of bilingualism and multiculturalism, rather than assimilation. In the name of diversity, the academic elites have encouraged immigrants to maintain their birth-country cultures and to adopt a stance of separatism and pugnacious victimization. Political scientist Samuel Huntington argues that this amounts to a deconstruction of American identity that has been "gradually created over three centuries." In his book "Mexifornia," Victor Davis Hanson says California is not quite Mexico, but not quite the United States either.

That last line comes pretty close to suggesting there's something un-American about being Hispanic.

I do want to be clear. I'm not in favor of raising the bloody shirt of Racism in all debates, but neither am I in favor of ignoring Racism when it shows it's ugly head.