Reading Response Class 3 – Allison Jiang

The central theme of this week’s readings appeared to me as how Americans’ perception of immigration and immigrants are shifting. When I use the term “American,” this encompasses government officials down to the average city resident. Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s busing of migrants to democratic-run cities has been described as a “political stunt” by officials in Washington.

 

From a different perspective, Abbott’s political move also served as a catalyst to bringing the border from the policymaker’s concern to that of the average city resident. Alongside the rampant and prevalent discussion of immigration in the 2024 presidential election, cities are having to grapple with handling this influx in migrants as well as the impact of this sudden increase on public opinion and political discourse.

 

There has been a dramatic increase in migrants, with more than 205,0000 migrants arriving in New York City since spring 2022. These stories spotlight how uniquely recent years’ conversations around immigration have been a popular media-powered discussion.

 

On one side we see the conversation that is an empathetic display towards those seeking refuge, most prevalent in the Uniting for Ukraine clip. Jana, the young daughter of a Ukrainian immigrant, paints a bright-eyed image of the United States and the American Dream. Her mother supports this positive rhetoric on the United States’ successful border policy. It was surprising to hear about how non-controversial Uniting for Ukraine was. Evident even in its name, this geopolitically driven policy is widely perceived as more compatible due to its bipartisan stance against an anti-American regime. Additionally, race plays a factor: the entry of white Ukrainian refugees is uncapped, meanwhile, Biden has capped Cuban, Haitian, and Venezuelan migrants and these policies have been challenged more than Uniting for Ukraine.

 

Contrarily, there is a far-right anti-immigrant sentiment brewing. This has been powered by Abbott’s busing and the Take Our Border Back convoy, making this rhetoric increasingly heightened, violent, and extreme. Take the YouTube livestreamers: these new online stars proclaim themselves “illegal hunters” staking out migrants along the Southern border, monetizing a sensationalist tendency and further feeding a far-right fanbase.

 

Additionally, with the migrant influx and dwindling resources and space for shelter, the growing number of homeless migrants on the streets has amplified the issue to a pressing public and political front; it’s the dramatic convergence of U.S. megacities’ issues of street homelessness and overwhelming migration. The busing has strained cities like New York who have been dealing with a crisis, as well as Denver who are not accustomed to such a mass intake of migrants.

 

The policy response has been highly defensive, with Biden announcing new immigration restrictions capping grating asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, and Mayor Adams distributing fliers at the border that warn migrants that they are not guaranteed shelter/services once in the city. I thought the New York Mayor’s chief of staff summarized this situation well: “If one of [Abbott’s] goals was drawing attention to what happens at the border in a way that many interior cities don’t feel on a regular basis, then yes, that was successful.”