America Should Build a Wall to Keep out the Irish
By Keith Evan
 
Thank you to our Irish compatriots for St. Patrick's Day, the four leaf clover and even Lucky Charms cereal.  Americans owe a debt of gratitude to the O'Briens, Fitzgeralds, and Cunninghams who have toiled on our railroads, died in our coal mines, and valiantly worn the Country's uniform in far away places from Iwo Jima and Fallujah. The thought of building a wall to keep the Irish out of The United States is repugnant.  As you look at the sea of green in your office and at the supermarket today, it is clear that the Irish are an integral fiber in the rope of American society.

There was a time in our history when the Irish weren't considered lucky and weren't welcome on our shores.  As aptly depicted in the movie Gangs of New York, the Irish were widely considered the Mexicans of the 1850s.  Dire conditions in Europe attracted immigrants to America, the land of opportunity, in droves.  The proportion of foreign born residents swelled to a ratio similar to ours today.  Irish immigrants filled positions in laundromats, wealthy households and as day laborers - jobs beneath the status of 'natives.'  At their zenith, the Irish constituted 30% of New York's population, 70% of the city's charity recipients and 50% of its arrests.

Shifting demographics gave rise to the semi-secret Know Nothing nativist movement, which viewed themselves as protecting American institutions from foreign menaces.  Called the Know Nothings because they were to play coy if asked about their affiliation, the movement matured into the openly xenophobic American Party.  Know Nothing candidates around the country ran on a party platform which drastically curtailed immigration, forbade Catholics from holding office, called for literacy tests for voting and championed a 21 year naturalization process.  Capitalizing on the discontent of the natives, the Americans rode the crest of anti immigrant sentiment to election victories in Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.  In the 1856 Presidential election California Governor John Fremont, a Republican whose Know Nothings sympathies were an open secret, garnered 33% of the popular vote in a loss to James Buchanan.

Almost 150 years later another Republican Governor from California, Ronald Reagan, had different feeling on immigration, declaring America a "Shining city on a hill...open to anyone with the will to get here."  As the Democrats march through their remaining primaries and Republicans prepare for November and beyond, the GOP must decide if it will carry the immigration banner of Fremont or Reagan.  

The attacks on 9-11 were an excruciating lesson that the illusion of border security is far worse than no border security at all.  The solutions to the challenges of immigration are not found in election year rhetoric, or in blaming the immigrant who, like all of our ancestors, came seeking a better life for themselves and those they love.  America's immigration policy must be guided by the twin goals of securing our borders while maintaining compassion for the immigrant. 

There is an adage that "America is great because it is good.  If we cease to be good, we will also cease to be great."'  Our shared history of welcoming the "tired the poor, and huddled masses yearning to be free" is what makes us good.  In order to ensure America's greatness for future generations, Republicans must embrace the issue of immigration reform, and anchor innovative solutions to the philosophy of President Reagan. 

The experience of the Irish American Immigrant is evidence of the country's ability to overcome racism and integrate diverse peoples into our culture.  It is also a lesson on immigrants' desire to be woven into America's cultural fabric.  The racism and violence of natives did not deter the Irish immigrant from pursuing the American dream, nor will a wall deter today's immigrant dreamers.  This is a nation of evolution, not revolution, and assimilation does not occur overnight.  We will know this country has once again succeeded in incorporating a new culture, if the next generation of American's raises a cerveza on Cinco de Mayo, with same fervor we lift our green pint today.