Hoodwinked

My favorite political scientist (FPS) believes the public is being hoodwinked on the immigration issue--by both sides. He fears that whatever solution comes out of this debate it will be detrimental to the future of this country because each side is conveniently sidestepping some critical element in order to make their argument more emotionally pleasing. And make no mistake, emotions, which can never settle a dispute with any clarity, are the dominant feature of this argument.
The media theme has been immigration is a GOP problem that is splitting the party. But, if my Democrat neighbors and friends are any indication of the grass roots of that party, the media has either missed the story or are deliberately not commenting on the fact that many Democrats are as rabidly against illegal immigration as anyone in the Republican Party. The May 1st declaration of "Rights" at the immigration protest rallies (held not coincidentally on the traditional Communist day of celebration), prompted one of my friends to say, spittingly, "They have no rights!" Another friend was really offended by the "today we march, tomorrow we vote," even though it is her fearless leader, Howard Dean http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060505/NEWS02/605050476&SearchID=73243946759897 who is challenging laws requiring voter ID cards that prove citizenship eligibility in Georgia and Indiana. This person also said something very interesting. She figures she should be on the "liberal" side of the issue, though she admitted she has no idea what that is, because as a card carrying Bush hater she should be opposed to whatever he advocates. However, she simply cannot stand the thought of the country being overrun by voting illegals, which puts her right in sync with the KKK marching in Georgia for the same reason.
The one area of some agreement is controlling the border. FPS, with many on the right, believes we should build a wall: close down the southern border as much as possible. Immigrant advocates will pay lip service to this idea until they are asked to specify what they mean, which is usually not doing anything differently than is done now. The main argument for this procedure is that if we have 20 million now, surely in another decade we’ll have twice that number. What those on the right who want every illegal deported ignore is that this is not going to happen. America is not going to watch a nightly news parade of young U.S. born children being deported to someplace they’ve never been and where they do not even speak the language; or having these same children dumped on the social welfare system when their parents are deported.
Many on the right also ignore the demographic situation playing out here and throughout the West, where a declining birth rate smacks right up against a rapidly rising retirement rate that is going to demand more resources than will possibly be available. Though the U.S. has less of a problem than Europe because we have a higher birth rate, we are still very sure we do not want a French economy with nearly 30% unemployment in some sectors-not to mention all those burning cars. Above all we cannot allow this argument to turn into a fight against all immigration. Some argue that we should increase the number of H1B visas for high tech and highly educated people, because importing illiteracy and poverty will only exacerbate our demographic problem.

Howard Dean, so impressed with the “protests,” says his party will ride this issue into the impeachment of Bush and to the White House in 08 if not before. But, there are some things he’s just not taking into consideration. First, assimilation. This is what has made America successful, and as we watch the ethnic unrest throughout Europe, we understand this is what Europeans have not learned to do. Newt Gingrich takes this up in his latest book Winning the Future, arguing that to qualify for citizenship every person must learn enough English to pass a test on American history and values.
The question about many of the illegals is, do they want to assimilate! On the front page of the Post today, “Vibrant Village Quieted as Salvadorans Go North”http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?node=admin/registration/manage&destination=password&nextstep=update tell s the story of one village from which most working age people have immigrated to the U.S. These immigrants support those left by sending a portion of their wages home. A significant part of the GNP of Mexico, over 20 billion dollars annually, is derived from this same source. Whereas earlier waves of immigrants to this country came to become Americans, that is a doubtful proposition with those here today. Even if individuals would protest this, they are drowned out by those on the far left who believe that the southwestern part of this country is a place called Aslan: a place that rightly belongs to Mexico and that needs to be repatriated. Just last week students at Montibello High School near Whittier California flew the Mexican flag on top of an upside down U.S. flag prompting massive protest on the internet. This behavior is encouraged by the leftists in Mexico, which will probably dominate the government after elections there this summer.
In this debate neither side listens to the other and instead of looking for solutions, spends all the time pointing fingers at the opposition. FPS believes building a wall is just the beginning. He agrees no one should have the privilege of citizenship without speaking the language and having an understanding of our history and form of government. He also agrees there should be a penalty for having broken the law by entering the country illegally in the form of a $5,000 fine. Now this is where FPS gets controversial. He thinks we should pull investment out of Europe and put it into infrastructure and business in Central and South America as our natural allies and business partners.
Though many current immigrants may not want to assimilate, for the most part their aims are peaceful-they’re not here to blow things up, but rather to earn a decent living for themselves and their families. One of the great ironies of this whole debate is what is happening in New Orleans. While Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, NBC’s Brian Williams, and the local politicians obsess about the poor blacks from the lower ninth ward who are not moving back to that hell-hole that provided them with no education, no opportunity, and no dignity (and why should they?), the people cleaning up there are immigrants from all over this country who piled into car pools and made their way to the disaster area in order to find work. These people echo one of the lines from the movie United 93. “No one is going to help us. We’ve got to do it ourselves.” That’s about as American as it gets.
That this issue is complicated goes without saying. The sad thing is that those who are genuinely looking not only for just answers, but for solutions that will spell progress for America in the future are taking this biggest hit. Number one is the President. He has been talking about this issue since 1995 and he has experience dealing with it both as the Texas Governor and in his present capacity. Both FPS and I agree with most of Mr. Bush’s proposals, but as long as we have demagogues involved in the discussion such as Howard Dean, Hugo Chaves (who funded parts of the protests), and the KKK there’s little hope of that. In the meantime, we may just be hoodwinking ourselves.