Resisting Immigration Reform

Identity politics rejects ending illegal immigration and reforming legal immigration.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online 

We are fast approaching what promises to be the year of “comprehensive immigration reform.” In the manner of the “Affordable Care Act,” it will not be comprehensive nor will it reform U.S._Border_Patrol_Badgeimmigration.

All sorts of new trends have emerged in the American Southwest to address the fact that federal immigration law does not really apply to those who arrived here illegally from Mexico or Latin America. In-state tuition discounts at public universities are now customarily extended to those without citizenship — in effect, privileging the foreign national over the U.S.-citizen student from out of state who helps subsidize the cost. Cities establish sanctuary zones that protect illegal immigrants from the enforcement of federal immigration laws — and the taxpayer picks up the additional tab in social services. Imagine what might happen should a city declare in similar fashion that it was exempt from enforcing federal gun-control laws.

Another trend is the effort to end penalties for past use of multiple Social Security numbers. Many who crossed the border illegally adopted various — and thus fraudulent — identities and acquired numerous Social Security numbers. When they later obtained green cards or citizenship, their poly-personas were found out. But isn’t it discriminatory to count such illegal behavior against the job applicant, if such criteria apply disproportionately to a particular ethnic group?

In other words, there is an effort to make the idea of immigration law per se mostly irrelevant, and instead to focus only on the immigrant in terms of his ethnic makeup and place of origin. Continue reading “Resisting Immigration Reform”

Western Cultural Suicide

We are blind to the contradictions in welcoming an immigrant but not making him one of us.

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

Multiculturalism — as opposed to the notion of a multiracial society united by a single culture — has become an abject contradiction in the modern Western world. Continue reading “Western Cultural Suicide”

Illegal Immigration: Who Benefits?

Why does the well-off California suburbanite stand shoulder to shoulder with La Raza?

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

Why are over 11 million foreign nationals residing illegally in the United States? Continue reading “Illegal Immigration: Who Benefits?”

Beautifully Medieval California

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

Gates Close at Dusk

At about dusk, I close two large metal gates to my driveways. The security lights come on, and I enjoy intramural life. Continue reading “Beautifully Medieval California”

The Tangled Web of Race

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

A number of commentators have openly sympathized with multi-murderer Christopher Dorner, who shot seven innocent people, killing four of them. Apparently, the late Dorner was a voice in the wilderness crying out against the racist injustice of the “system.” Continue reading “The Tangled Web of Race”

Illegal Immigration Is Immoral

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

Illegal immigration has been in the news daily during the Republican primary campaign, even though a depressed economy here, stronger border enforcement, and vast new finds of petroleum in Latin America may soon radically curtail the number of illegal entrants into the United States. Continue reading “Illegal Immigration Is Immoral”

The Moral Dimensions of Illegal Immigration

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

The New Old Debate Over Illegal Immigration

The debate over illegal immigration is mostly fossilized. We know the predictable contours. Continue reading “The Moral Dimensions of Illegal Immigration”

Liberal Psychoses

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

How are we to make sense of flash mobbing, the London rioting, more hatred expressed for the Tea Party, more calls for ever more debt and spending, and Barack Obama’s dive below 40% approval in the polls? Let me backtrack a bit. Continue reading “Liberal Psychoses”

The Inexplicables

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

There are a number of things I don’t fathom about contemporary American popular culture and politics. Here is a small sample. Continue reading “The Inexplicables”

Illiberal Immigration

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

Recently, in symbolic fashion, spectators of Mexican ancestry in Pasadena’s Rose Bowl did not merely cheer on the Mexican national soccer team in a game against the US national team — such nostalgia would be natural and understandable for recent immigrants — but went much further and also jeered American players and, indeed, references to the United States. Continue reading “Illiberal Immigration”