I’ve never written about immigration reform before largely because the subject barely interests me as a policy issue and also because I have nothing new to add to the debate over what to do about it.
But 500,000 people in the streets of Los Angeles (and tens of thousands in the streets of other cities) is politics. And regardless of where you come down on the issue of immigration, the political implications of such a large group of people feeling strongly enough about something to turn off the TV, get up out of their easy chairs, and march are huge, so big in fact that where the majority of American people come down on this issue may indeed decide the fate of the Republican majority in Congress.
Since there exists the probability that the loss of Republican dominance would mean the almost certain attempt to impeach President Bush as well as some kind of limit or even a cut-off of monies to fund the War in Iraq, the stakes couldn’t be higher. (Doubters of the latter will please note that both Presidents Nixon and Ford never believed for a moment that the “Class of ‘74” Congress would cut off aid to South Viet Nam and allow the regime to fall. They were wrong).
Despite what many Republicans think, the immigration issue has numerous pitfalls for the party. It’s an easy issue to demagogue as well as being as divisive as many social issues. Ezra Klein:
I’ve argued before that immigration is to the GOP as trade is to the Democratic Party. The base is strongly in favor of quasi-xenophobic crackdowns while the party’s intellectual and business elite is overwhelmingly internationalist, focused on the coming electoral power of the Hispanic bloc and the cheapness of immigrant labor. And when it comes to elections, the political crosscurrents grow even more violent than that. On immigration, what’s good politics in the primary is often deadly in the general. Ask Pete Wilson, whose support of Proposition 187 (which denied undocumented immigrants government services) proved initially popular but demolished the Republican Party in California for the next decade. A Republican candidate who demagogues the issue to win the primary will find himself screwed in the general, as even slight swings in the massive Hispanic electorate can easily toss an election, and an anti-immigrant push could, as it did in California, activate the heretofore underperforming Hispanic electorate. As Mike Buttry, spokesperson for Chuck Hagel, complains:“The short-term politics of this are pretty clear. The long-term politics are pretty clear. And they’re both at odds.”
That just about sums it up. Any issue that highlights the fissures in the party between “Main Street” conservatives represented by groups like The Chamber of Commerce and “movement” conservatives whose spokesman at the moment is Representative Tom Tancredo means that it will be that much harder to maintain Republican majority status come November. Main Street congressional candidates could find activist money and shoe leather either being denied them as a result of their stand on immigration or even transferred to a primary challenger.
The Democrats seem intent on making the issue a moral choice between “justice” and “racism.” My oh my, where do you think we should come down on the immigration reform measure currently before Congress given that choice?
Senator Hillary Clinton has called H.R. 4437 a “mean-spirited” piece of legislation which “literally criminalizes the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself.” The “Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005” (H.R. 4437) is a Republican piece of legislation which would not only makes felons out of the millions of undocumented immigrants already in the United States, but it would also make it a crime to provide any assistance to those immigrants, if you know they are undocumented. “Mean-spirited” doesn’t come close to describing this bill.
Does anyone else find it just a little bit absurd that the left, who have been ranting for 5 years about Bush placing himself above the law, now wish to put millions of people not only above the law but beyond the law as well?
I am 100% for legal immigration. And I would hope that we triple the number of people who could legally emigrate from Mexico and other places. But the idea that anyone who can sneak across the border is automatically granted a special class of citizenship replete with a shopping list of goodies courtesy of the American taxpayer is just plain wrong. It isn’t a question of “criminalizing” illegal immigrants because they are already criminals. That’s why the demonstration in Los Angeles yesterday was so perplexing; just what were the marchers demonstrating for?
Jose Alberto Salvador, 33, came here illegally just four months ago to find work to support the wife and five children he left behind; in his native Guatemala, he said, what little work he could find paid only $10 a day. “As much as we need this country, we love this country,” Salvador said, waving a stick with both the American and Guatemalan flag. “This country gives us opportunities we don’t get at home.”
A fine and noble sentiment worthy of any immigrant who has ever come to America. To my mind, the question is not whether he should come here or whether he has a right to come here, the question is how he gets here. Any nation that can’t control its own borders in the age of terror is asking for trouble of the cataclysmic kind. And what Mr. Salvador represents – as badly as we need that kind of spirit and willingness to take advantage of the opportunities that America gives the rest of the world – is a denial of our sovereignty.
I am not enamored of the idea of placing a wall up to keep Mr. Salvador and other illegals out of the country but the sad fact is we are in a crisis situation. Desperate measures are called for. Here are some of the grim statistics:
- By historical standards, the 33.1 million immigrants living in the United States is unprecedented. Even at the peak of the great wave of immigration in the early 20th century, the number of immigrants living in the United States was only 40 percent of what it is today (13.5 million in 1910).
- Immigrants account for 11.5 percent of the total population, the highest percentage in 70 years. If current trends continue, by the end of this decade the immigrant share of the total population will surpass the all time high of 14.8 percent reached in 1890.
- Immigration has become the determinate factor in population growth. The arrival of 1.5 million immigrants each year, coupled with 750,000 births to immigrant women annually, means that immigration policy is adding over two million people to the U.S. population each year, accounting for at least two-thirds of U.S. population growth.
And, there is little evidence that the bulk of these immigrants who come illegally are making any effort to assimilate. The very fact that they are illegal places them outside the channels that immigrants have historically used to adopt the United States as their homeland. Instead of assimilating, an entirely separate culture complete with government services, benefits, and a support system has grown up around the idea that people here illegally should be coddled and stroked, largely for their votes.
You cannot force people to assimilate. But you can make it easier for those who want to. And by setting up enclaves of illegal immigrants where the rule of law is made a mockery of and people are rewarded for not integrating into society, the government assures that there is no incentive to add one’s unique and fascinating cultural qualities to the great American melting pot. When “diversity” rules, “unity” suffers.
All of these issues go to the heart of immigration reform. President Bush’s proposal – cribbed from the playbook of the US Chamber of Commerce – is a mish mash of enforcement propositions and a “guest worker” program that many experts believe would do nothing to stem the tide of illegal immigration and may in fact encourage it. The Republicans are split on how draconian the enforcement provisions should be. The Democrats are united in opposition to the entire plan, seeing an easy way to demagogue some votes. Given that the President’s plan would do the least amount of damage to the GOP’s image with their growing number of Hispanic adherents, it seems likely that some kind of a guest worker program along with a few enforcement bones thrown to the Tancredo faction in Congress will emerge from Committee.
What kind of law that would make seems to be lost in all the political calculations both sides are making this election year.
UPDATE
We are not a “nation of immigrants.” This is both a factual error and a warm-and-fuzzy non sequitur. Eighty-five percent of the residents currently in the United States were born here. Sure, we are almost all descendants of immigrants. But we are not a “nation of immigrants.”
(Isn’t it funny, by the way, how the politically correct multiculturalists who claim we are a “nation of immigrants†are sooo insensitive toward Native American Indians, Native Alaskans, Native Hawaiians, and descendants of black slaves who did not “immigrate†here in any common sense of the word?)
Even if we were a “nation of immigrants,†it does not explain why we should be against sensible immigration control.
And if the open borders advocates would actually read American history instead of revising it, they would see that the founding fathers were emphatically insistent on protecting the country against indiscriminate mass immigration.
Also, here’s an Op-Ed from today’s Washington Post that makes the case rather well that guest workers are a very bad idea.
Dan at The Glittering Eye is making sense today (as usual):
Almost everything I’ve seen in the blogosphere today on the subject has been romantic claptrap. The fact is that illegal aliens have broken the law. That many come here seeking a better way of life is irrelevant. All criminals want a better way of life and see their crimes as a means to that end. It’s no excuse.
7:51 am
You are missing one huge point and hitting another.
Those who arrive here illegally aren’t immigrants. They are CRIMINALS.
Immigration is what made america great. We need it to keep america a vibrant, competitive place. Criminals who break and enter into the USA cannot do this.
Arrest the lot. Grind the numbers down over years.
Those who hire these criminals are felons. Jail them. The CEO, CFO’s are responsble. Just as they are to stockholders. Jail them. If some upper middle class family wants to save a few coins by hiring an illegal, they are supporting a vast criminal empire in doing so. It’s a felonious crime, IMHO.
Change the immigration laws and MAKE MORE AMERICANS, not more criminals. We need more americans in this manner, not those who be definition as you point out cannot do so, and form necessarily damaging and limiting associations.
Guest worker advocates ought to check out the state of the Marshall Islands
9:58 am
No need to go to the Marshall Islands. Look no further than LA, Ca. yesterday. Who financed and organized the turnout of thousands of people (not near 500,000 that’s being hyped)? The working people in this country are and will be the people paying for the mess the left wing liberals have already created in the country. LA’s criminal politicians are now and will continue to reap what they sowed. If the criminals that were in the street are so productive, why are they here instead of in their own country? Good productive citizens could cure the ills of their own country, the criminals that have fled the law in their own country neither contributed there and will not contribute to anything other than an overloaded welfare and prison system here.
Watch the lefties whine and use the blame game when members of their own family start dying because they can’t get medical care in their own hospitals. I hear areas wide announcements (police/fire/EMS scanner) almost every day that one or more of the local hospitals are on total diversion. No one will be admitted and that includes those with life threatening emergencies being transported by emergency service crews. A fifty mile ride to another facility assures your relatives will not have a chance and most die in the back of the ambulance even with the best of care by the paramedics. An immigrant is an immigrant and a criminal is a criminal. 99% of what is already here are criminals.
I live in Va. and we are becoming overrun with criminals from all over the world. The former Governor raised every tax and fee in the state. Not one was missed. Now we have another idiot that spends 24-7 looking for any and everything he can raise taxes by massive amounts on. All to provide welfare for the criminals and buy votes.
If yesterday wasn’t a wakeup call to the citizens of this country that we are overrun with foreign criminals then we don’t deserve a free country.
10:31 am
Rick,
your two commentors, Epaminondas and Scrapiron nailed the problem and solution.
Those who arrive here illegally aren’t immigrants. They are CRIMINALS.
Enforce the law—arrest and deport them all..
Illegal IS illegal. Why don’t politicians, sworn to uphold the law of the land, understand that simple truth?
ExPeacherMan
12:24 pm
While I almost never agree with anything published on this web site, I agree that a guest worker program is a moronic idea. The last thing this country needs is a pool of tens of millions of people within the country locked out of any participation, or hope of participation, in the American dream. If you’re living and working in this country, you should be a citizen, or at least have the option of moving towards citizenship. And at some point, you should become a citizen or leave.
1:30 pm
It’s a clear indication of how divisive an issue is when, in the space of only four comments (as I write this), both sides are bitterly and rigidly represented.
I think we’re overlooking a moderate (and in hindsight, obvious) solution: just annex Mexico. This would eliminate the criminals / illegals – so the right can sleep without fear, and provide automatic access to the American dream (or at least the attempt) – which will soothe the left.
2:47 pm
[...] FOLLOW-UP: I highly recommend this post at Rightwing Nuthouse, as well as this Op-Ed piece by Kathleen Parker, published in today’s edition of the Houston Chronicle. [...]
3:02 pm
Unemotional on Illegal Immigration
It gives me a migraine to think about the illegal immigration issue, but I think I understand what is going on.My view is simple. Our representatives make immigration laws that hopefully serve the nation and reflect the feelings of the people. People who
3:03 pm
Excellent essay.
Linked it this afternoon, with brief comments on this headache of a subject.
3:34 pm
Bill Frist’s Ancestors Came From The Moon
4:00 pm
I hope the criminals continue to march in the streets. I had to attend a couple of meetings today that consisted of people from both parties + several independants. Guess what? Each and every person there made comments that really meant, grab them by the seat of the pants and throw them back across the border. Based on the 30+ people today i’d predict that they made millions of enemies in the base voters of America that were once willing to overlook the criminals. A few more freak ahows (like this weekend) organized by the socialist/communist party and they will find the welcome mat removed for good. Best thing to happen in years.
9:57 pm
Furtive Glances: The Post-Upset Upset Edition
Okay, so I’m a UConn fan, and I’m upset today. The tournament was shaping up as Connecticut’s to win, if only they could play just a little defense for five minutes. But no, it was not to be for the
7:30 pm
“a support system has grown up around the idea that people here illegally should be coddled and stroked, largely for their votes”
Where exactly are illegal aliens voting? That’s even more disturbing than the fact that they are here! Voting is a privilege and a responsibility of citizenship. Illegal aliens should not be voting AT ALL.
1:28 am
Six observations to make:
(1) Back in 1848 we had a chance to annex Mexico, Polimom—check out John Calhoun’s speech from January of that year in which he argued against either annexation or colonialism (before you agree with him too quickly, think about his real reasons for opposing annexation and, be honest, doesn’t racism have the teensiest bit to do with it?).
(2) Check out Thom Hartmann’s critique of various liberal takes on illegal immigration over at Common Dreams—he’s a pro-working class leftist, so don’t be too quick to lump liberals and leftists together on immigration issues. Right wingers, though, won’t like his solutions.
(3) Matthew Frye Jacobson in Whiteness of a Different Color points out exactly how racialized the immigration debates in the late 19th and early 20th C were. Before you pooh-pooh the idea that racialization of “Celts,” “Slavs,” and “Alpines” has nothing to do with how the nativist right profiles Latinos, or how the threat from Latino immigration is so different than last century’s racism against “other white races,” I’d suggest you actually read Jacobson’s well-researched and well-written study (Hartmann should, as well).
(4) Back in 1994, Leslie Marmon Silko warned against the U.S. becoming a “border patrol state.” Check out Tram Nguyen’s We Are All Suspects Now or David Cole’s Enemy Aliens for a portrait any libertarian should find worrying.
(5) Why is it that small-government conservatives are usually fine with free flows of capital and commodities but not with people or labor? What happened to the ‘90s confidence that the invisible hand of the market would make government obsolete in a kind of capitalist revolution? What happened to the celebrations of capitalism’s powers of creative destruction?
(6) Immigration raises tough issues that every wealthier nation in the world has to confront. Snap judgments, hysteria, and paranoia don’t do anyone any good. This site is more thoughtful than most, but still doesn’t get to the heart of the problem. Corey Robin’s review essay in the April 10 issues of The Nation gets into some of these complexities. Have yet to see a conservative version as well researched and well-argued.