by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n I\u00a0was disappointed by the president\u2019s tone more than the specifics of his proposals. Once again, he proves true to character: politicizing the issue, citing straw men, and then accusing those with whom he disagrees of political demagoguery.<\/p>\n In truth, the political situation is this: A president who once demonized his election-time opponents by advising Latinos to \u201cpunish\u201d their \u201cenemies,\u201d and who for 27 months ignored grandiose campaign promises of immigration \u201creform\u201d due to political reality, now suddenly turns to immigration as (a) re-election looms and he desperately needs the Latino vote, and (b) he has a bounce from the killing of bin Laden. And so he demonizes opponents and issues calls for the audience to go to the White House website to rally political support for his plan.<\/p>\n And, of course, we then get the usual straw men (\u201cthey\u201d) so characteristic of Obama\u2019s rhetoric. \u201cSo we\u2019ve seen a lot of blame and politics and ugly rhetoric.\u201d And, \u201cThey wanted a fence. Well, that fence is now basically complete.\u201d And, \u201cI suspect there will be those who will try to move the goal posts one more time. They\u2019ll say we need to triple the border patrol. Or quadruple the border patrol. They\u2019ll say we need a higher fence to support reform.\u201d And this: \u201cMaybe they\u2019ll say we need a moat. Or alligators in the moat.\u201d And this: \u201cThey\u2019ll never be satisfied. And I understand that. That\u2019s politics.\u201d<\/p>\n In truth, nearly 70 percent of Americans, including millions of Mexican Americans, want the border fenced because it is still in large part currently porous and open, and we are in a time of high unemployment, rising drug violence spilling in from Mexico, a tottering Mexican government, and weariness with an identity politics that seeks to equate enforcing federal law and opposing blanket amnesty with racism. And note that Obama did not, as he claims here, \u201cbasically complete\u201d (note that key word \u201cbasically\u201d) the fence, but stopped it. In fact, as of May 1, 2011, about 650 miles of the 1,900-mile border are fenced.<\/p>\n Otherwise, some of Obama\u2019s proposals make sense, but he doesn\u2019t say how he would implement those that do. For example, to say, \u201cThey have to admit that they broke the law, pay their taxes, pay a fine, and learn English. And they have to undergo background checks and a lengthy process before they can get in line for legalization\u201d means what?<\/p>\n Where exactly are illegal immigrants to be processed \u2014 here, or in Mexico? What happens if they do not learn English or pay taxes or pay a fine or have a background check? Summary deportation? Are we suddenly going to begin detaining illegal aliens, repeal current sanctuary laws, compel cities to enforce federal law, and then do what \u2014 as we check their criminal records, examine whether they paid their fines, and quiz them on English?<\/p>\n The suspicion among \u201csome,\u201d to use the president\u2019s words, is that he will push things like amnesty, which is what the euphemistic \u201cDREAM Act\u201d is, talk grandly about paying fines, learning English, and sending home those who don\u2019t pass \u201cbackground checks\u201d (felonies, misdemeanors, etc.?), but then never follow up on the enforcement part.<\/p>\n Finally, the president is right in the following: \u201cAnd fourth, stopping illegal immigration also depends on reforming our outdated system of legal immigration. We should make it easier for the best and the brightest to not only study here, but also to start businesses and create jobs here. In recent years, a full 25 percent of high-tech startups in the US were founded by immigrants, leading to more than 200,000 jobs in America. I\u2019m glad those jobs are here. And I want to see more of them created in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n But again, there is a sleight of hand. Immigration is not infinite; does the president mean that we should begin predicating legal immigration on skill sets and education and not just on border proximity and family relations \u2014 which is precisely what one would infer from a fair reading of the president\u2019s entire speech and his emphasis on the issue in Hispanic terms? Is one Ph.D. from India or South Korea to mean one fewer cousin of a US national without skills and with a high-school diploma from Oaxaca?<\/p>\n \u00a92011 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online I\u00a0was disappointed by the president\u2019s tone more than the specifics of his proposals. Once again, he proves true to character: politicizing the issue, citing straw men, and then accusing those with whom he disagrees of political demagoguery.<\/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":[111],"tags":[12,1036,327,268,128,1059,660,131],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-Of","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3059,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/alligators-moats-and-other-such-nonsense\/","url_meta":{"origin":3115,"position":0},"title":"Alligators, Moats and Other Such Nonsense","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services President Obama gave what was billed as an important speech on immigration last week near the border in El Paso, Texas. Unfortunately, it was one of the most demagogic moments in recent presidential history. Nearly everything Obama said was either factually incorrect or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Immigration"","block_context":{"text":"Immigration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/immigration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":623,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/incoherent-immigration-reform\/","url_meta":{"origin":3115,"position":1},"title":"Incoherent Immigration Reform","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Nothing about illegal immigration quite adds up. Conservative corporate employers still support the idea of imported, cheap, non-union labor \u2014 in a strange alliance with liberal activists who want the larger blocs of Latino voters that eventually follow massive influxes from Latin America.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Immigration"","block_context":{"text":"Immigration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/immigration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2464,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/spare-us-the-sermons-mr-president\/","url_meta":{"origin":3115,"position":2},"title":"Spare Us the Sermons, Mr. President","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services During the recent debt crisis, President Obama talked about the need for bipartisan compromise and, as in the past, urged civility. Giving ground and engaging in polite discourse, of course, can be noble aims. But, like most one-eyed-jack politicians, Obama has rarely embraced\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Debt and Deficits"","block_context":{"text":"Debt and Deficits","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/politics\/debt-and-deficits\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7569,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-new-childrens-crusade\/","url_meta":{"origin":3115,"position":3},"title":"The New Children\u2019s Crusade","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Almost everything we are told about illegal immigration is both a lie and amoral. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Sometime around 1212, mystics in Europe cooked up the idea that kids could part the seas, reach the Holy Land, reclaim Jerusalem, and convert the infidel Muslims. Thousands\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mexico"","block_context":{"text":"Mexico","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/mexico\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":353,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-latino-vote-obsession\/","url_meta":{"origin":3115,"position":4},"title":"The Latino-Vote Obsession","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Postelection panic among conservatives about the Latino vote has reached the point of absurdity \u2014 and mostly reveals the na\u00efvet\u00e9 of detached political grandees who know little about the ideology and motivations of those they are now supposed to adroitly woo. Republican postmortems\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Immigration"","block_context":{"text":"Immigration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/immigration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":665,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/legal-illegal-immigration\/","url_meta":{"origin":3115,"position":5},"title":"Legal Illegal Immigration","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services President Obama recently issued an edict exempting an estimated 800,000 to 1 million illegal aliens from the consequences of federal immigration law. 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