Compassion and Immigration.

Illegal immigration is front and center again.  Rick Perry spoke to it a few weeks ago and, just the other day, Newt Gingrich made some remarks about it.  Both of these men assure us that they are opposed to illegal immigration, but argue that we must have some compassion in dealing with the subject.  Both men have been vociferously attacked for their comments.  I am not certain that I fully understand either man's position on the subject yet, but I think that I am closer to Gingrich than to Perry.  As I understand it, Governor Perry actually favored providing instate tuition to illegal immigrants living in Texas.  If that is his position, I completely disagree with it.  I see no reason to give an illegal immigrant any such benefit and I see lots of reasons not to do so.  On the other hand, Speaker Gingrich is suggesting that we thoroughly vet every illegal immigrant and give some of them who have managed to integrate themselves into the fabric of their local community something that he calls a "certification of legality" that would permit them to stay in this country but not give them the rights of citizenship.  Gingrich is famous for saying simple things in convoluted language.  I am assuming that this is another instance of his being articulately tongue-tied and what he really means is that he wants to give them an old-fashioned work permit.  I completely agree with that proposal and believe that it is one of the keys to resolving the problem.

I have posted my opinions about immigration several times before (see August 1, 2010 for a sample).  As the current illegals are proving every day of the week, America needs immigrants to do the work that legal citizens disdain.  We've got nine percent unemployment, but our unemployed do not want to wash dishes, or clean somebody else's house, or pick lettuce, or collect garbage, or….  The list is a long one and proves that we need a large inflow of menial labor in this country.  That should be enough motivation to get this situation under control, but it is not the most important reason that we need to get our immigration policies straightened out.  America has long been a magnet for the world's best ideas and most dynamic innovators.  An intelligent immigration policy will help to ensure that these ideas and people continue to gravitate to America rather than to one of our increasingly able competitors in the global economy.  So, for what it is worth, I advocate hermetically sealing our borders to illegal entry and liberalizing the policy that we implement at border crossing points to include work permits for the manual labor that we obviously need to make this country function.  At the same time we have to set intelligent quotas and regulations that makes it possible for the best and brightest to continue to come to this country.

If we were to be very honest with ourselves we would admit that the subject of immigration has overtones of racial and ethnic prejudice.  To say that holding these prejudices in the twenty first century is morally wrong is true, but it is only half the story.  It is also infinitely stupid.  People that some of us feel are racially or ethnically inferior to native born citizens are taking our jobs away from us at home and abroad and they are doing it because they can do those jobs as well as legal citizens can and they are willing to do them for considerably less remuneration.  If we were to face facts, we would have to admit that illegal immigrants generally work as hard or harder than legal citizens and most of them have admirable family values similar to what our educational system claims is one of our national strengths.  If they broke the law to get here, I don't want to just give them amnesty, but I certainly do not mind letting them stay as guest workers with limited legal rights.   At the same time, it is clear that there are a very significant number of very bad people who have come into this country illegally.  Obviously, we need to ferret those people out and either put them in jail or kick them out of the country.

President Obama's policies with regard to illegal immigration are divisive and do not adequately address any of the real issues.  He has not sealed the border and he has supported those that demand amnesty.  It is another of the reasons that I want to remove him from the office that he currently holds and send him back to academia where he might very well contribute to the national conversation in positive ways.  In 2012, we need to elect a president that can straighten this mess out and I give Newt Gingrich credit for being willing to tackle this in what currently appears to be an intelligent manner.