Illegal Immigration: A Very Uncomfortable Undertone

Nick Gillespie, Editor-in-Chief of Reason Magazine, discusses the magazine's August-September cover story on immigration. According to Opinion Journal's Political Diary, the essays inside "focus is on the various political, economic and social arguments informing today's raucous [immigration] debate. But what really recommends this current issue are the half-dozen vintage late-19th and early-20th century illustrations that accompany the text." Gillespie:

"Conservatives like to bleach the racism out of the immigration debate, but that's always been part of it," said Mr. Gillespie, noting that Irish and Italians weren't considered white at the time and that political cartoons of this era often depicted the Irish with distinctly simian features. "These images should haunt this debate more than they have. All of the assimilation patterns point to Mexican immigrants being totally indistinguishable from others down the road. But the way these people get talked about as invaders, as rats, as mice, as bugs -- it's something that needs to be countered in a way that only history lessons can."

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