Imagine a predominately Irish neighborhood in a large American city is confronting an influx of non-Irish families moving in. Wouldn't it be understandable for the long-time Irish residents to feel somewhat resentful of the newcomers? Wouldn't it be understandable for them to worry that the culture of their neighborhood was going to change and to feel ambivalent about that change? That these Irish residents might feel this way would not make them racist xenophobes as much as it would merely reflect their humanity, right? This is part of what makes the debate over immigration reform that is happening everywhere except Congress so difficult.

Americans who live in states that are disproportionately affected by immigration, such as Arizona, are likely to have a different perspective than some of the rest of us. For them, immigration is not an abstract issue about hypothetical rights and wrongs but a practical matter with the potential to impact their daily lives. I remember this quite well from living in California.

It is normal to worry about the how the influx of "outsiders" may affect one's neighborhood, community, or town. Just because some of us were taught that the U.S. is a "melting pot" (this metaphor has since been replaced with the metaphor of tiles in a mosaic), does not mean that we are unconcerned about the impact of new people moving in. And having such a concern does not automatically make people racist either.

I'll be the first to admit that I find immigration reform to be one of the more complicated issues that the U.S. is going to have to deal with eventually and that I probably won't end up toeing the progressive party line on it. In part, this is due to my having little idea what the progressive party line on immigration is or will end up being. But I also say this because I am wary of the tendency I have seen among some progressives to label anyone who disagrees with them about immigration as racist. I'd rather reserve that label for the clear-cut cases.

This is a discussion we need to have. I don't expect it to be an easy one, but there important ones never are.

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