Musings on Immigration

This week’s national elections brought home a very simple fact. The American People have, for a third election cycle, once again rejected Anti-Immigration candidates. Hate simply does not sell in America, and the Anti-Immigrationists only peddle hate. Frank Sharry and the folks at America’s Voice, issued a press release today confirming what many of us already suspected, Latinos came out strongly for President-Elect Obama and the Democrats. The key demographic came out so strongly not because they inherently believe all that Democrats espouse, but rather because the Republican party, the party most Latinos would culturally and philosophically be more drawn to, rejected them, classified them as “illegal” and law breakers, and literally chased them away and lost them, perhaps for a generation or more. Anti-Immigrationists, who tragically have found a home in the Republican party, can say they are only talking about “illegal aliens” and that they love legal immigrants, but the realit...

Some recent articles have focused on the lack of discussion on immigration during the presidential campaign. This should come as no surprise to anyone who lived through last year’s debacle on immigration reform. The reality is that “immigration” is the new third rail of American Politics. Touch it, and you die (at least politically). This reflects nothing more than a misunderstanding of the impact of positive immigration reform would have on our society and our economy. What would the Anti-immigrationists do, if they could not rail again “Illegal” aliens? Now, do not be fooled by the standard Lou Dobbs retort: “I am completely in favor of legal immigration.” In fact, one of the leaders of the Anti-Immigration movement, Mark Krikorian, recently made it quite clear in his new book, “The New Case Against Immigration: Both Legal and Illegal.” Krikorian, finally comes clean on his movement’s real purpose–Stop all immigration. This position reeks of the Know-Nothing politics of the...