The arguments I cited initially are sound, they arent necessarily rooted in xenophobia. People can look back at American history, at times when immigration was open and times when it was severely restricted and draw conclusions from that that arent racist.

One of the questions is quite literal and as I’m more of a nuts and bolts person rather than an idea guy I wonder, what is owed to a person who shows up in this country? 18 year old male from Esfahan, Iran shows up in my hometown of Portland, Maine. What happens? What are our responsibilities? Not ideas but from day 1 what are we to give? Should we have any expectations of that person at all? I could speak to him but should he have to learn English? Is that necessarily wrong? One of the easiest ways to abuse immigrants is to exploit ones who cant understand English while simultaneously not providing resources in their native tongue, I dont see why we cant fix both of those, they neednt be mutually exclusive. If we find he had a felony in his home country should he be immediately deported? What about something less than a felony? All kinds of base level questions that rarely get addressed. Its not wrong to ask these questions. I dont think its constructive to label it as xenophobia when you don’t know who you’re talking to or their motivation.

Give me Concerning your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me my best regards,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

(from a Tom Toles cartoon)

providing amnesty on our shores for oppressed people.

Did you mean asylum? Or a shift to a more open immigration policy, which might involve an amnesty for existing undocumented immigrants?

Lou Reed, Dirty Boulevard

this is one of those conversations that is inherently de-railed. the built in assumptions are almost always the assumptions of privilege – “who DESERVES to come to OUR country!”, a morality lottery based on hours worked, or the idea of the “worthy poor” (as opposed to all the poor who are poor because they are evil lazy bastards). then the idea of limited resources – as if any random group of desperate immigrants is going to cause SUVs to stop being made. the inherent racism; european immigrants, sure, my great-great-whomever was from some european country! and canadians, cuz their just americans who like extra snow. but africans? asians? arabs?
they have to PROVE they are being hurt in their home country. despite the fact that it is a well-spoken platitute that in the third world (everything except the north american and SOME of europe, to most people) your average MIDDLE CLASS family lives on less than $2 a day.wouldn’t that hurt ANYONE?

sorry. this is one of my pet peeves, trying to get people to get over their xenophobia. it doesn’t help that i live in Columbus, where a good chunk of the Somalinian refugees ended up.