The North Carolina General Assembly overrode Governor Josh Stein’s veto, reviving HB‑318, a law labeled as anti-immigrant. The legislation, which is part of President Donald Trump’s agenda, mandates local cooperation in immigration matters (Stein called this unconstitutional). This Republican-backed law gained the support of Democratic legislator Carla Cunningham, representative for Mecklenburg’s 106th district. What led her to take that stance?
She Calls for Assimilation, Not Integration
“They have come to our country for many reasons, but I suggest they must assimilate and adapt to the culture of the country where they want to live,” Cunningham said on July 29.
In political science, the rhetoric of assimilation promotes the incorporation of minorities into a dominant culture by adopting its customs, values, and language, at the expense of their own cultural identity, which nationalists view as inferior.
Integration is not the same as assimilation. Assimilation presupposes a static American identity and ignores the contributions immigrants make to the country’s social, economic, and cultural development. Integration, on the other hand, respects cultural diversity and with it, the potential for greater enrichment of society as a whole.
Does she support Trump’s policy of English as the official language?
“Do you think I can go to another country and set my own rules to build a life, use the language I choose, and then tell that country it must speak my language? That’s not going to happen, nor should it happen,” Cunningham said.
The United States didn't legally have an official language until the Trump administration launched a reform that changed that. Representative Cunningham apparently sympathizes with several MAGA positions.
Multiple studies highlight the benefits that bilingual education brings to children. Additionally, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers (behind Mandarin), with 496 million native speakers, according to the Cervantes Institute.
The number of native Spanish speakers continues to grow in the United States, rising from 11 million in 1980 to 43 million, according to the latest Census. Today, the United States has the second-largest Spanish-speaking community in the world, surpassed only by Mexico. To ignore this is shortsighted and isolationist.
Does Carla Cunningham Want Fewer Legal Immigrants?
“We have been naïve. We have been exploited and abused by the different tactics used to obtain U.S. citizenship. It’s time to wake up,” said legislator Cunningham, who does not seek to control irregular immigration but to restrict legal immigration.
Obtaining citizenship is not a matter of “just taking a test.” It requires several years, thousands of dollars, a great deal of effort, and meeting the long list of requirements mandated by current law.
Regarding the narrative that immigrants “abuse the system,” in 2023, immigrants represented 18% of the nation’s total economic output (approximately $2.1 trillion) despite making up only 14.3% of the population. This output includes wages, salaries, and revenues from immigrant-owned businesses.
Additionally, in 2022, undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes. This included $25.7 billion into Social Security and $6.4 billion into Medicare programs, from which they are not eligible to receive benefits.
A legislator believes immigrants are a threat
“It’s time to stop the chain and adopt a global migration suited to these times that won’t destabilize our communities. A large number of people coming in can change a country forever,” she added.
Could it be that the Democratic legislator believes the far-right propaganda about an “immigrant invasion”? What is she afraid of? It has been repeatedly proven that immigrants do not bring crime to the communities where they live.
It is deplorable that Cunningham uses the General Assembly floor to spread prejudice, ignorance, and stereotypes. Immigrants are not a threat; they are part of this country’s history and will be part of its future.
Find this article in Spanish here.