Agoraphobia: Fear and Fences as Symbols of America
By Gregory D. Morrow

Fear is a very powerful thing. Fear can motivate even the most reasonable of people to act irrationally. And that’s what is happening right now in the United States on the issue of illegal immigration. The latest news is that the Minutemen are now going to build their own private fence along the U.S.-Mexican border. May I introduct to you the new symbol of American freedom:

Forget the Statute of Liberty. That is so yesterday. No, today, it is better to simply wall yourself off from the world around you, and let the media broadcast images of what American thinks of the world. Actually, there is nothing surprisingly about the current state of panic in the United States. American fear has reached pathological levels since 9/11. Many Americans now suffer from Agoraphobia – the fear of open spaces, but more commonly thought of as the fear of leaving your house. The common response is to simply close the world out.

This culture of fear is played out everyday on newscasts. We even build our cities to quell our fear. Gated communities are the fastest growing form of housing. Fear of crime, fear of terrorism, fear of the other.

While the Minutemen will try to convince people it is fear of terrorism that really matters (that 0.045% of those apprehended were from the list of state-sponsored terrorism countries probably indicates this isn’t a serious problem) — the real motivation is the latter — fear of the other. Many Americans lament how Mexicans have infiltrated American culture, defiling the purity of a white Protestant Eden that they worked so hard to achieve. Moreover, they deploy the government waste — the cost associated with providing illegals with healthcare, education and other benefits. Others simply ascribe to the ‘rule of law’ — immigrants are OK, so long as they follow the proper procedures. Of course, most don’t know – or care – that the procedures are ridiculous (I should know — I have five post-secondary degrees, can teach at one of the world’s top schools, but somehow I cannot be naturalized). But of course that’s the point. I wonder if people would be willing to trade off more immigration, so long as it was not illegal immigration? Somehow I doubt it. The fact is, public opinion polling consistently shows that most Americans don’t like immigrants.
What people seem to forget that what is considering ‘illegal’ has changed radically over the years. People rationalize that, well, the country was young and growing in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and “we don’t need them now”. But it would be interesting to know how many people, when they trace back their lineage, can honestly say that they entered the U.S. under the same standards of legality that are in place today? Were their grandparents and their great-grandparents really any different than the people who have the energy and drive to come to America today?

What was ‘illegal’ a century ago is certainly not what is ‘illegal’ today. The fact is, a nation of immigrants, once having reached the U.S. themselves, has decided that the country has enough immigrants and has made it difficult for others to enter by continuing to redefine the requirements for legal entry into the United States. That’s the kicker with the invention of the nation-state and rights — they are geographically bounded. Whatever lies beyond your border is of no consequence to you. Unless you think they pose a threat to you, of course.

So desperate are people today to keep the other out that they want to turn the U.S. into North Korea so that every last person who tries to get into the U.S. will be thwarted. Mexicans want to get into the U.S. because they can make $10/hour for a job for which they would be paid $2/hour in Mexico. It’s a basic problem of economic disparity. What I like to call spatial justice. Hell, the Minutemen could do a lot more good by using the money they will spend to help border cities with economic development.

Instead, they are intent on turning the U.S. into North Korea in order to make themselves feel safe — from terrorists, sure, but mostly from Mexicans. And I’m sure soon, too, they will need to build a fence along the Canadian border just so that they won’t be labeled racists.