Mitt Romney recently made a comment about immigration that he hoped would set him apart from his Republican opponents, particularly those such as Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich, who have been less than perfectly xenophobic when discussing the immigration problem.
Romney declared: "[Undocumented immigrants] should be in line or at the back of the line with other people who want to come here illegally."
When pushed about what exactly he meant by this, in other words which families would he boot out of the USA first, Romney, as is his habit, equivocated, saying his opinion articulated an important principle, but was not a guide to specific immigration policies.
However, the "get to the back of the line" comment, so reminiscent of the "back of the bus" laws of Jim Crow, points to a worldview held broadly in conservative ranks, which is that immigrants and poor legal citizens of the USA are right where they belong, at the back and on the bottom of opportunity.
Conservatives argue there is a legal and moral "line" that should assess the order in which people will be treated justly and humanely. Of course the rich always occupy the point in that line where the most justice, humanity and wealth will be bestowed.
Meanwhile, immigrants, people from other lands wanting to come to the alleged "light" of all good American things, will have to "get at the back of the line", in other words follow rules, written by the rich minority at the head of the line, that determine exactly who gets to come and work and be real Americans in the USA.
Also, poor Americans, legal citizens who, just like undocumented immigrants, wish a fair share of the light of all good American things, will also have to "get at the back of the line". And their children will have to suffer there as well, at the very end of opportunity, where the chances of rising out of poverty and despair and illegality are intentionally minimized by the people who make torturing the losers one of the joys of winning in the USA.
The immigrant problem and the poor American problem are the same problem—the struggle of poor classes of human beings to achieve better treatment for themselves and their families at the hands of rich masters who view the poor and their plight as a collateral cost of the rich doing business. It is a cost Republicans think the poor classes should pay all on their own.
This is one reason there is a groundswell among Americans, and not just the poorest ones, to resist any longer obeying the unjust commands of the ruling class. And that is one reason the ruling class has fearfully instructed their security forces to use heinous means, including assaulting peacefully protesting Americans with chemical weapons, to stop the just and perfectly understandable uprising of the people.
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