This week was once again dominated by giving tours of the Capitol. Most of the tours were something less than great, due to the problem of having to talk over large groups of people that happened to be clogging the tour route. Monday was the day scheduled for the large pro-immigration rally in Washington, and was also an especially busy tour day. Our tour route runs down the tunnel from Dirksen into Russell and then from Russell into the Capitol, but we had to stop in the tunnel between Dirksen and Russell due to the fact that the Capitol had been declared “full.” I had to stop my group of fourteen people (fifteen is the maximum allowed to any one guide) and make small talk to pass the time. …Or so I thought. A conversation with a polite, middle-aged woman about my future plans was interrupted by a hefty guy who inserted himself in the already limited space between me and the rest of the group.
His burning question was not particularly intelligent. He demanded to know why the United States government would allow such a “golden opportunity” like the immigration rally to pass them by. He inquired why “we” didn’t just “go out n’ round ‘em up” since it would be a pretty simple task to do so. Before commenting, I made sure to clarify that I was not filling the role of Senator Durbin’s official spokesperson. However, I was not going to stand and listen to this man spout off for twenty minutes or more, so I tried my best to tactfully point out that such an activity would be impractical at best and unconstitutional at worst, given that these people were free to assemble and were not behaving violently. Also, to assume that they were all, or even mostly illegal immigrants would be a mistake. He gradually backed down, first suggesting that we could at least detain the people and check their citizenship. I asked him if he had a firm grip on how many police officers it might require to “round up” and detain over one hundred thousand people.
As we talked more, his irrational and thinly-veiled racist commentary faltered bit by bit until he was forced to admit that there was no simple solution to immigration reform, or even a simple solution to the enforcement of current immigration law.
I had fielded several phone calls at the personal office that week as well as the previous one, and had to deal with similar pronouncements and vulgar racist remarks, so I was somewhat familiar with what to anticipate. I had found though, that when given time and presented with sane arguments or simple facts that many people who regularly spat vitriol would back down just a bit over time and say that “after all, we are a nation of immigrants,” or something similar. With most calls though, there is simply not enough time to actually talk to people and most just want to say their piece and get off the line. They do not take kindly to being contradicted and will ask in a shocked tone with indignation, “Are you arguing with me?” – to which you can only reply that you are not, and are merely trying to provide some relevant information so that they may become more informed about the subject. Some will jump on that and ask if you’re implying that they are uninformed.
Taking phone calls on the immigration issue was often simultaneously the most entertaining and depressing thing that I experienced. It was entertaining because often I could tell that they simply had been told what to say by Rush Limbaugh and depressing because a significant portion of the country actually thinks the same way...
