ABSTRACT
In the same spirit but a different vein, we see that from the early twentieth-century on immigrants were associated with imported political radicalism of the left and right. They were seen as carriers of communism, anarchism, nihilism, or as vicious reactionaries, as bomb-throwers and terrorists aiming at subversion or plotting to use the USA as a launching site for revolutionary or counter-revolutionary coups at home (Zeidel 2004, 10). This is a recurrent theme. Today, the Minutemen border patrol focuses its fear on the ‘Reconquista movement’ – ‘Hezbollah Invading U.S. from Mexico’ (Jacobson 2008, 132, 145). Immigrants are tied to the threat of separatism: California or Texas seceding or being annexed by Mexico (Huntington 2004; Wroe 2008, 29). Resistance to immigrant political incorporation owes to the fear that the invasion could come through ordinary politics: taking over ‘by the vote if possible’ (Jacobson 2008, 132).
