The great immigration battle of 2006 features, on one side, millions of immigrants and their supporters and, on the other, the Minutemen, some Congressmen, and Lou Dobbs. On the face of it, the battle is uneven, but then Dobbs has television on his side, and he uses it to great effect. The Sensenbrenner bill is what put the immigrants on the streets since it seeks to criminalize those here without a visa, their employers, and anyone who renders them assistance. The bill was not preceded by any massive citizen mobilization against immigrants: African-Americans did not rally in the streets, nor did Americans “whose jobs immigrants take away”; the middle class did not march in protest nor did the employers. Passage of the Sensenbrenner bill was preceded by just talk, TV talk.
