http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/immigration-illegal-immigrants-1990890-born-people
I've advocated for restrictive immigration policies, given the welfare-state and Balkanization issues in particular, but I'm increasingly inclined to view the cure as something worse than the disease. Do we really want a militarized border? Do we want to empower federal police agencies to demand IDs, search homes and shut down businesses simply to rid the nation of poor people who mostly are here to work? And let's not get on our high horse about the "rule of law," given that crossing the border illegally is a misdemeanor. I'm sure none of my readers have ever, say, broken a traffic law, right?
Ironically, the people who are most angry about illegal immigration describe themselves as conservatives, yet they advocate every big-government idea known to mankind to fight this problem. They show no concern about the police-state tactics and civil-liberties-destroying policies that would be necessary to send every illegal immigrant back home. They show no compassion for the people who come here, and refuse to recognize that "we" – that is, American citizens – would do the exact same thing if the roles were reversed, and we weren't able to find jobs to feed our families on this side of the border. (By the way, we would settle around other Americans, would eat American food, read English-language publications and make demands on the Mexican government, too.)
Some of the frustration is understandable, but the level of anger is troubling. Most of the people I hear from claim they aren't against immigration per se, but only against illegal immigration. Fine, then why not increase immigration quotas so that people from Mexico and elsewhere can more easily come here legally or adopt a guest-worker program? They tend to get apoplectic at that suggestion. But why not liberalize quotas if the issue is merely about legality? The correct answer, offered by former California State Librarian Kevin Starr in his book "California," is that many illegal-immigration foes use it as a proxy issue for their anger about California's rapidly changing demographics.
I've advocated for restrictive immigration policies, given the welfare-state and Balkanization issues in particular, but I'm increasingly inclined to view the cure as something worse than the disease. Do we really want a militarized border? Do we want to empower federal police agencies to demand IDs, search homes and shut down businesses simply to rid the nation of poor people who mostly are here to work? And let's not get on our high horse about the "rule of law," given that crossing the border illegally is a misdemeanor. I'm sure none of my readers have ever, say, broken a traffic law, right?
Ironically, the people who are most angry about illegal immigration describe themselves as conservatives, yet they advocate every big-government idea known to mankind to fight this problem. They show no concern about the police-state tactics and civil-liberties-destroying policies that would be necessary to send every illegal immigrant back home. They show no compassion for the people who come here, and refuse to recognize that "we" – that is, American citizens – would do the exact same thing if the roles were reversed, and we weren't able to find jobs to feed our families on this side of the border. (By the way, we would settle around other Americans, would eat American food, read English-language publications and make demands on the Mexican government, too.)
Some of the frustration is understandable, but the level of anger is troubling. Most of the people I hear from claim they aren't against immigration per se, but only against illegal immigration. Fine, then why not increase immigration quotas so that people from Mexico and elsewhere can more easily come here legally or adopt a guest-worker program? They tend to get apoplectic at that suggestion. But why not liberalize quotas if the issue is merely about legality? The correct answer, offered by former California State Librarian Kevin Starr in his book "California," is that many illegal-immigration foes use it as a proxy issue for their anger about California's rapidly changing demographics.
