The more things change—
In a 1994 letter to editor published in The Star-News, someone wrote, in part: “We have all see demonstrations against Proposition 187 conducted throughout California by large groups of people waving Mexican flags while shouting ‘Viva Mexico!’
“If those demonstrators love Mexico with such devotion and loyalty, why don’t they go back to their country?”
Go back to where you came from. I don’t know how old that tired refrain is. Maybe it was something the Wampanoag muttered under their breath when they realized the folks who landed at Plymouth weren’t going to leave anytime soon. And maybe the Pilgrim colonizers overheard them and adopted the retort as their own.
For ages “Go back to where you came from!” has been directed at people demanding dignity and respect as human beings while also demonstrating a respect and appreciation for their heritage. It’s the same sentiment of those waving Ireland flags at St. Paddy’s Day parades or the Bundesflagge at an Oktoberfest party, though I have yet to hear anyone at those events be told to go home.
Prop. 187 was a mid 90s law passed by California voters that villainized immigrants. It barred undocumented people from securing public services such as healthcare and education, with proponents claiming they were stealing taxpayer dollars.
Immigrants were the perfect scapegoats to hold responsible for the turmoil of the 90s recession. Then-Gov. Pete Wilson and like-minded politicians found renewed popularity when they whole-heartedly endorsed its passage and implementation.
The law was eventually ruled to be unconstitutional. Immigrants, legal and otherwise, remained and continued to better this country.
Years later more economic turmoil has ushered in another era of anti-immigration rhetoric and policy. Reintroduced in 2016 under the first Trump administration there was a brief four-year reprieve during the Biden term.
But now it has returned with an unrivaled ferocity, with Trump II rounding up as many immigrants, undocumented and otherwise, as possible and deporting them. And when protestors take to the streets waving flags representing Mexico, Venezuela or some other country, observers respond with that old hackneyed nugget: Go back to where you came from—the more they stay the same.
