Americans' dislike of immigrants isn't new

These same complaints were given 100 years ago when all the Irish (my grandparents) were arriving here. DP

By Ruben Navarrette

InsideBayArea.com : Now that the Senate is taking an honest look at the immigration problem, it's time for America to be honest about what the problem really is.

Much of it really is about clashing cultures and a concern that immigrants aren't assimilating. When someone complains that San Diego is "becoming like Tijuana," or when someone else says — as an Idaho woman recently told the Los Angeles Times — that her neighborhood has become a Spanish-speaking "shanty town," it's a dead giveaway that, for many Americans, the problem is not with people coming into the country illegally, but with the effect they have on their surroundings once here.

This week's student walkouts, in protest of efforts to control illegal immigration, brought this sentiment to light. When more than 25,000 students in Los Angeles, and thousands of young people in other cities, took to the streets, what enraged many observers — judging from talk radio and television shows — was the fact that the protesters waved Mexican flags.

This reaction is no surprise. This country of immigrants has never been welcoming of new immigrants, even those who came legally.

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