Pitting minorities against immigrants an old tactic

Almost as an afterthought near the end of his nationally televised address on what he calls the “border crisis,” President Donald Trump remembered his black and Hispanic constituents and what’s good for us — as he sees it.

“(A)ll Americans are hurt by uncontrolled illegal migration. It strains public resources and drives down jobs and wages,” he said from behind his Oval Office desk. “Among those hardest hit are African-Americans and Hispanic Americans.”

As an African-American who cares about closing income gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged groups, I appreciated the shout-out, even if it seemed to contradict his usual boasts about black and Hispanic employment climbing to record highs under his watch.

History shows the public tends to turn against immigrants at times of high unemployment, quite the opposite of the currently vigorous national employment rates.

It’s only fair to mention that the upward trajectory of black, Hispanic and other groups’ employment rates has continued a climb that began under Barack Obama.

Trump’s highlighting unemployed black and Hispanic workers as victims of illegal immigration unfortunately suggests a new version of an old sneaky divide-and-conquer tactic: Turn one disadvantaged group against another through halftruths and stereotypes.

While there is little argument that a growing percentage of lowskilled immigrants undercuts the job supply and pay for low-skilled Americans, some researchers also have found that an increase in the labor supply through immigration often generates more jobs in the long run.

As Treva Lindsey, an Ohio State professor in women’s gender and sexuality studies, told The Washington Post, “Simply put, more demand for goods and services means greater demand for those providing those goods and services.”

Yet, the health of that job-creating engine is hardly helped by the fact that 800,000 government workers’ paychecks are held up by the partial government shutdown, which was triggered by deadlocked negotiations over the president’s proposed border wall.

In war and peace, blacks often were the “last hired, first fired,” unable to enjoy the benefits of long-term employment except as a last resort.

As opportunities in employment, job training and union membership opened up nationwide, particularly in the civil rights revolution of the 1960s, black leaders found it made more sense to ally with other ethnic groups to try to expand opportunities. Black Americans did not invent what is often called “identity politics.” They only found ways to turn it into a tailwind for progress instead of a headwind against it.

And need I mention that black and Hispanic voters overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton over Trump — 89 percent of black voters and 66 percent of Hispanic voters.

If anything, most voters — minority and otherwise — want to see comprehensive immigration reform that improves border security and also resolves the unsettled status of law-abiding immigrants who already are here with some sort of pathway to legalization — beginning with the “Dreamers” who were brought here without documents as children. That’s the real issue behind the wall standoff.