For generations now, Mexican Immigrants have been largely oppressed in the United States. This treatment is highly due to the perpetuated long-standing beliefs systems held by privileged White Americans and the Alt-Right or White supremacists. Mexican Immigrants have been targeted even more recently due to Donald Trump and his mobilization of the Alt-Right. This paper will begin to explain how White privilege and the Alt-Right have created the marginalization of Mexican Immigrants in the United States and will propose an intervention to confront it.
Mexican Immigrants in the United States are discriminated at all levels of the social structures, individual, organizations and structural, which leads to the marginalization of Mexican Immigrants. Choices and policies made by predominately, White privileged males, create a cycle of oppression that limits the opportunities for Mexican Immigrants in the areas of education, employment and housing. According to Rothenberg & Munshi (2016), discrimination looks like employers with beliefs about minorities that condone those hiring Mexican Immigrants for entry level and minimally paying positions, despite their experience or qualifications. Teachers who ostracize children and teens that are learning English as a second language and interpret this as low potential or lack of interest in school studies. School counselors that drive Mexican Immigrants away from careers in science and math which limits their potential to make a higher salary because of their low expectations of Mexican Immigrants. Real estate agents tend to show Mexican Immigrants fewer homes and specifically target homes in minority neighborhoods with the belief that White neighbors would oppose to having diverse neighbors. Families that believe that when minorities move into their neighborhoods that they should move out because of the belief that property values may drop (Rothenberg & Munshi, 2016). These unwritten policies and biases marginalize Mexican Immigrants every day in the US and have become even more pronounced since the election of Donald Trump and the rise of the Alt-Right.
The anti-immigrant movement is comprised of some of the most powerful policy makers in the US including the current president of the US. Most hate groups in US aim to deport all immigrants both legal and illegal and use policies to restrict Mexican Immigrants access to legal protection and rights while in the US (Griffith, n.d.). One such hate group is the Alt-Right. The Alt-Right is described by Clemmitt (2017), as “a coalition of white nationalist, white supremacist, anti-Semites and others seeking to preserve what they consider traditional Western civilization” (p.1). Donald Trump did not create the Alt-Right movement however, he did create the atmosphere by disparaging Mexican Immigrants in his speeches and in social media and through this he has given white nationalist a platform to spew their hate from (Michael, 2017). The Alt-Right’s primary issue is immigration and that too many Mexican Immigrants are having children which threatens their White supremacist views of a supreme dominant White race. The Alt-Right has called on Trump to enforce anti-immigration policies that will directly affect Mexican Immigrants.
In 2017, Trump cancelled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which allows young Mexican Immigrants who have been brought here as children (before the age of 16) the ability to work and protection from deportation (The Dream Act, 2018). The cancelation of DACA the fate of over 800,000 DACA recipients are at risk of losing their jobs, education and deportation (“What Does the End,” 2017). As referenced above, Mexican Immigrants are already facing discrimination everyday while applying for positions with credentials. Trump is adding another barrier for Mexican Immigrants and denying access to education and the ability to achieve credentials thus, denying them from higher paying careers (Rothenberg & Munshi, 2016). This will undoubtedly further marginalize Mexican Immigrants in the US.
