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Friends -- Four Truths I Know about Illegal Immigration
One of my favorite cartoon strips comes from “The Gospel According to Peanuts”.
I believe Lucy’s rain is analogous to how the majority of Americans feel about illegal immigration – that it has gone from a pleasant sprinkle to an alarming deluge.
Yes -- this is as complex and thorny and heartbreaking an issue as ever our country faced. But in this great muddied mix of pros and cons, there are four things of which I am certain:
(1) I know that the word “comprehensive” – as in “comprehensive immigration reform” – is code for amnesty. Recently our president made it clear that the Democrats have no intention of sealing our southern border until such time as Republicans agree to some form of amnesty path for the roughly 12 million illegal aliens living in the U.S. Republicans believe, as I do, that controling the border must come before any consideration of amnesty. Based on what I've witnessed, the Left has no intention of ever, ever, EVER securing the border.
(2) I know that America cannot possibly absorb the massive poverty of Latin America without collapsing. Even just opting to give amnesty to all illegal aliens already living here could bust us. “Of the 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., at least 50 percent lack a high school degree. Giving this population, amnesty and access to welfare would lead to a staggering increase in future welfare costs.” -- The Heritage Foundation. \
And . . . because of our “chain” immigration policy, every amnestied immigrant would then be able to start importing his immediate family.
(3) I know that Latin America (and the world) is going to keep on coming – by the millions -- until such time as we effectively seal the border.
Why wouldn’t the multitudes come? Well-intended leftist policies have insured that law enforcement ignore their illegal status; those that do get deported can and often do quickly return. They are guaranteed many of the rights of American citizens, including a good education for their children (who will be citizens if born here). They are paid much higher wages, get some welfare benefits, and can avail themselves of healthcare far superior to that in their native lands. Even at a poverty level the quality of life here is markedly better – and, oh yes – illegal immigrants have loads of zealous American “boosters” – leftist open-border advocates doing anything and everything they can to thwart the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
(4) Lastly, I know that any form of amnesty will – once again – greatly incentivize additional illegal immigration.
“Our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same . . . Second, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset . . . Contrary to the charges in some quarters, the bill will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area.” Ted Kennedy, speaking as floor manager of the 1965 Immigration Act
As a result of the arrival of more than 20 million mostly Mexican and Central American newcomers in the U.S., Latino immigrants and their U.S.-born children and grandchildren will represent almost a third of the nation's working-age adults by mid-century, according to projections from U.S. Census Bureau data by Jeffrey S. Passel, a demographer with the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center in Washington. . . a wave that swelled in the 1970s and soared during the 1990s, the offspring of Latino immigrants now account for one of every 10 children in the United States. – N.C. Aizenman -- Wash. Post Dec 7, 2009
U.S.-born Hispanics of the third and higher generations drop out of high school at twice the rate of white Americans. The illegitimacy rate for children born to Hispanic mothers passed 50 percent in 2007, heading upward – double the white rate. Samuel Huntington – Who Are We?
Large segments of our elite culture – in the universities, for example – are hostile to the naïve “Americanism” of our great-grandfathers, and to the assimilationist ethic that went with it. . . If you let an immigration enthusiast just rattle on about the topic, the rattling generally proceeds along the lines: rhapsodize, moralize, demonize. First comes the rhapsodizing about the speaker’s Ellis Island or Famine Ship ancestors. Then the moralizing: We are a good nation – let the whole world know how good we are! Let them come! Lift the lamp beside the Golden Door! Then the demonizing of any kind of immigration restrictionism as evil, filled with cruel intentions.– John Derbyshire, Inviting the World
PS That’s not really Hartford.
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