by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n
Candidate Barack Obama promised immigration activists, “I think it’s time for a president who won’t walk away from something as important as comprehensive reform when it becomes politically unpopular.”<\/p>\n
Now pressure groups are demanding Obama come through on his pledges.<\/p>\n
In response, the administration may trump the healthcare debate with another divisive issue \u2014 “comprehensive reform” on immigration \u2014 that is surely just as “politically unpopular.”<\/p>\n
After the failure of the polarizing cap-and-trade bill, and the current blood-on-the-floor fight over “comprehensive healthcare reform,” tackling illegal immigration right now would be a political nightmare.<\/p>\n
Activists at next week’s planned immigration “reform” rally in Washington, D.C., may use euphemisms like “comprehensive immigration reform” or stage demonstrations about “immigrant rights.” But most Americans have few problems with immigration per se \u2014 as long as it is legal and in numbers that facilitate assimilation and integration into American life.<\/p>\n
So let us be honest for once on this issue. The problem is almost exclusively one of illegal immigration \u2014 namely, the until-recent unlawful entry of somewhere between a half-million and 1 million new arrivals annually, mostly from Mexico and Latin America, that resulted in the current 11 to 15 million illegal aliens already living here in the shadows.<\/p>\n
Wiser counsel would insist on quietly continuing to close the border through increased security, employer sanctions, the use of tamper-proof I.D.s, and completion of the border fence. Without massive new influxes of illegal immigrants, society gains time to debate hot-button issues like guest-worker programs, amnesty and deportation.<\/p>\n
In the interim, the illegal community would become static \u2014 and far more rapidly integrate, assimilate, intermarry or voluntarily return home.<\/p>\n
But even as the number of illegal arrivals temporarily lessens due to stricter enforcement and the recession, the impatience of uncompromising activists increases \u2014 especially calls for amnesty as a reward for Hispanic bloc support in the 2008 election.<\/p>\n
If the administration is foolish enough to go along with their demands for such a blanket amnesty, President Obama may gain probable new registered voters, but it would be a political disaster that dwarfs the failed Bush administration attempt at addressing illegal immigration.<\/p>\n
Bush, remember, was a conservative who tried both to work with Democrats and finesse his suspicious right-wing base into supporting a Republican-sponsored plan. And he still failed when his opponents equated his earned-citizenship proposals for illegal residents as euphemisms for blanket amnesty.<\/p>\n
But as a liberal with close ties to pressure groups like the National Council of La Raza (“The Race”), Obama won’t have nearly that bipartisan advantage, especially coming off a polarizing healthcare debate.<\/p>\n
In addition, the economy remains stagnant. The old argument that cheap laborers from the south do the work Americans won’t is now dated. Unemployed Americans might be more willing to hammer shingles, wait tables or mow lawns in the current depressed climate. And you can bet they are less willing to pay out unemployment, welfare and food and housing subsidies for those who are neither lawful residents nor always fully employed.<\/p>\n
More importantly still, violence-torn Mexico is constantly in the news. Members of drug cartels butcher each other, the innocent, the Mexican police \u2014 and Americans. Much of the frightening violence \u2014 far worse today than in Iraq \u2014 is right on the border. Sometimes it spills over, convincing most Americans to keep the border more, rather than less, concrete.<\/p>\n
We should also not forget that in cash-strapped times, politicians are taking a second look at all income and expenditure. Illegal aliens are far more likely to work off the books for cash and thereby avoid normal paycheck tax deductions.<\/p>\n
Estimates put private remittances from the United States to Mexico and Latin America at anywhere from $30-50 billion a year. Much of that sum is believed to be sent by millions of illegal aliens. If low-paid residents choose to send billions southward, aren’t they more likely to need government subsidies to make up the difference?<\/p>\n
If next week’s protests turn out like some of the May Day rallies of the past \u2014 when chanting demonstrators waved the flags of nations that illegal aliens do not wish to return to while criticizing the country they most certainly wanted to remain in \u2014 it will only further turn off the general public. In a multiracial society, our system will implode if some residents can pick and choose which federal laws to follow.<\/p>\n
So the idea of yet another partisan knockdown, drag-out fight over “comprehensive reform,” begs the question: Would an Obama effort to offer another polarizing fix really be about solving pressing problems \u2014 or perhaps, once again, be more about creating bigger and permanent political constituencies?<\/p>\n
\u00a92010 Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Candidate Barack Obama promised immigration activists, “I think it’s time for a president who won’t walk away from something as important as comprehensive reform when it becomes politically unpopular.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[608],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-sr","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8008,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/voting-no-on-obamas-immigration-policies\/","url_meta":{"origin":1763,"position":0},"title":"Voting ‘no’ on Obama’s immigration policies","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ TSM Everyone finds a lesson in the Republican midterm tsunami. One message was that so-called comprehensive immigration reform and broad amnesty have little national public support. Polls have long shown that, but so do last week's election results. Candidates in swing states who promised amnesties\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "America's Future"","block_context":{"text":"America's Future","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/americas-future\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immigration reform activists in Washington, D.C., July 7, 2014. (Win McNamee\/Getty)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/pic_giant_111314_SM_Immigration-Rally-G-500x291.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1820,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/beware-of-comprehensive-anything\/","url_meta":{"origin":1763,"position":1},"title":"Beware of ‘Comprehensive’ Anything","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Before envisioning dramatic change, the Roman emperor Augustus is said to have warned, \"Make haste slowly.\" The reformer Augustus was eager for radical social transformation. But he also knew he had to deal with generations of Roman tradition and habit \u2014 and thousands\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "February 2010"","block_context":{"text":"February 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/february-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7658,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/illiberal-immigration-reform\/","url_meta":{"origin":1763,"position":2},"title":"Illiberal Immigration \u2018Reform’","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"People who call for \u201ccomprehensive immigration reform\u201d seldom mean it. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online The last thing a liberal proponent of immigration reform wants is liberal immigration reform. Remember that paradox, and the insanity at the border makes some sense. 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