Puppy Politics

Here’s a conversation I had with friend and colleague Charles Madigan about the politics surrounding the current debate on immigration policy.

Jim:  They sit on frigid sidewalks wrapped in blankets trying to sell small boxes of candy to support themselves. They are immigrants, refugees really from Texas and beyond, bussed to Chicago by a coward who calls himself governor. They are learning how cold Chicago can be in more ways than one.

As I walked the streets of the city’s Loop recently, I did something that Republican Texas Governor Gregg Abbott doesn’t have the guts to do.  I stopped and looked into the eyes of the victims: the bewildered stares of children, cuddled beside their folks for warmth or sitting on their laps. Many are around the age of my grandchildren, six and three. What would I do if they suffered the same fate thanks to political hacks in Texas and Florida who think they are tough guys? Tough guys make tough decisions; they don’t engage in political pranks that put children on the frigid streets of cities and strange places. I dig into my pocket for a five dollar bill. My trip through downtown Chicago is expensive. They are on almost every corner.

I moved away from Chicago about four years ago to North Carolina so I could be near my grandchildren. My daughter chose to stay in the city by the lake. So, my wife and I, who lived on the Gold Coast before the move, bought a small condo in Uptown so we could see our daughter more easily. It was a great idea. I love being able to see her more frequently and easily. And I like Uptown.

Of all the changes I’ve seen since I’ve come back home part-time, the composition of the homeless population strikes me most starkly. The policy of sending them to the frigid streets of an otherwise beautiful city is not only heartless; it’s also boneheaded. We have a labor shortage that contributes to inflation, and a Social Security system straining to provide benefits to retirees. Why not welcome immigrants from dark places by training them for jobs that can fill the worker gap? Employees pay taxes that bolster the Social Security system.

We are a nation of immigrants. My great-grandfather came here penniless and fleeing starvation in the 1850s. Think of the contributions he and his progeny made over decades. My family started businesses, paid their taxes, and served their country. Letting them in was the smart thing to do. Many of the immigrants from Mexico and further south come here and succeed. They remind me of my family. We can do better than playing politics with people’s fates. What do you think Charlie?

Charlie:  I think our politics is such a troubling amalgam of racism, nationalism, and nativism that nothing surprises me, even though it breaks my heart to drive past street corners where fathers and mothers huddle in the wind with cardboard signs begging for help. That’s my gut and my sense of history colliding. Let’s remember that the genuine occupants of this country, particularly in the Midwest where I live, were native people with names like Potawatomie, Kickapoo, Sac, Ottawa, Illinois, Miami, Huron, Dakota and Sioux. I suppose if they had buses, they would have packed all of us in them to get rid of us, because we violated their homeland, too. 

These strange Republican behaviors are also not at all in line with what Americans think about this problem. Looking back over a couple of years of polling on immigration issues, some sixty-five percent said undocumented immigrants should stay here and apply for citizenship. Children who are brought here should be allowed to stay and eventually apply for citizenship. More than half of people polled say immigrants make America a better place. There is a vast divide between Republicans and Democrats on the subject. No matter what question you ask, in short, the Republicans say immigration is bad and Democrats say it’s not a serious problem. I think the problem has become so strongly politicized that no one knows what should happen. The good-bad dichotomy is stronger than ever. As for me, I think we should get truckloads of work permits, welcome everyone who is here, no matter how, and help them fill the millions of jobs that are going begging in all kinds of industries. The more they become like the rest of us, the more we will realize they are as great an asset as the Irish people who came, along with the Chinese, to build.

photo by Elena Mozhvilo

Jim:  I agree with Republicans on one point. We have a problem right now with a surge of refugees from places like Venezuela crossing the border illegally. They bring with them some crime and social problems in cities like Chicago. But most of these people are not bad; they’re just desperate. And GOP radicals like House Speaker Mike Johnson don’t have a workable policy to deal with them and the problems they pose. President Biden wants Congress to pass legislation now before the Congress that would allow him to shut the border and establish some controls on the influx. But Johnson and his thin Republican majority in the House, egged on by Donald Trump, the front runner for the GOP presidential nomination, oppose doing anything. Their answer to the problem is a political stunt calling for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alexander Mayorkas. Like political puppies, the hard right of the Republican party want to reward their big dog with a bone -- an issue he can use to bludgeon Biden in the upcoming election. This is cynical politics. Immigrant kids on the streets pay the price for a political game that also would deny aide to Ukrainians trying to fight Russia. Let’s not forget. Trump had four years in the White House to fix an immigration issue that has festered for years. He produced nothing but bluster. I’m not wild about Biden’s plan, but at least he has one. Do you think Trump and his howling hounds will succeed?

Charlie:  I’m afraid in one important way they already have, spreading the thought that these are diseased people and mental health cases released from hospitals and carted to the border. I, of course, don’t believe that for an instant, but I’m not the target market for any of those thoughts. All of this puts people with clearer heads in a position where they have to slap down the rhetoric, never getting to the actual issue of how to handle the border and the people who are desperate to come here. But this is how we handle lots of social problems, slapping labels on all kinds of people to use them as pawns in a variety of political games. I know how that works, it’s just that in this case, we’re putting the criminal label on the wrong people. See Trump and his big collection of federal charges for that. I do have a final idea. Hijack Trumps’ beloved campaign plane and plop him down in Mexico City without even so much as hair spray. See how he feels about that.

—James O’Shea and Charles Madigan

James O’Shea is a longtime Chicago author and journalist who now lives in North Carolina. He is the author of several books and is the former editor of the Los Angeles Times and managing editor of the Chicago Tribune. Follow Jim’s Five W’s Substack here. 

Charles Madigan is a writer and veteran foreign and national correspondent for UPI and the Chicago Tribune, where he also served as a senior writer and editor. He examines news reporting, politics and world events.