Don't Mix Flu and Immigrant Debate - Ruben Navarrette
May 02, 2009
By Ruben Navarrette
Meanwhile, studies show that for those illegal immigrants who are already in the United States, very few of them go back and forth between the two countries. More often, they stay on this side of the border rather than pay additional smuggling fees or risk their lives trying to re-enter the United States. In fact, it's just as likely that, if someone did indeed carry the swine flu into the United States from Mexico, it was someone who could travel freely between the countries - such as a U.S. citizen or legal immigrant. In New York, American students who went to Cancun for spring break fell ill. Now there have been at least 28 confirmed cases of swine flu.
Given the large quantities of fear and xenophobia that Americans digested during the immigration debate, maybe it was too much to ask that we could confront an international health crisis originating in Mexico without slipping back into old habits. We could have guessed that some Americans would be trying to convince themselves that the United States can shut out Mexico - and, if need be, the rest of the world. Just as we could have guessed that opportunists would seize on the swine flu outbreak to try to bolster their contention that the U.S.-Mexico border is porous.
The San Diego Union-Tribune
This entry is in the following archive(s): Opinion | Ruben Navarrette Jr.
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