by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n
A<\/span>fter the utter collapse in the Senate last week of a comprehensive immigration bill, Washington insiders\u00a0are blaming everyone and everything.<\/p>\n Supposedly, talk-radio hysteria killed the bill. Or was it the purported racism of yokels?\u00a0Or did most of us fail to appreciate the hidden benefits of\u00a0open borders so clear only to those in Washington?<\/p>\n In reality, the 1,000-page bill failed because\u00a0millions of Americans opposed it, believing, among other things, that it provided virtual amnesty to illegal aliens. Through the “Z visa,” the bill offered illegal aliens legal worker status \u2014 along with a ticket to eventual citizenship \u2014 after only a precursory background check.<\/p>\n More importantly, people were skeptical, to say the least, of hundreds of pages of more regulations when the last “comprehensive” immigration legislation, in 1986, either made things worse or was largely unenforced. That’s why various polls reveal that most Americans were against the new bill, with, according to a June Rasmussen poll, less than 25 percent in favor of the Senate version.<\/p>\n W<\/span>hat causes this grassroots furor, and where will it lead?<\/p>\n The public thinks anti-terrorism efforts are futile when hundreds of miles on our southern border are, for mysterious reasons, left wide open.<\/p>\n Then there is the American sense of fair play: Thousands of would-be legal immigrants wait in line from all over the world to come to this country. So why the special considerations that seem designed to address the concerns of just one group \u2014 especially when Mexico already supplies the largest number by far of our legal immigrants?<\/p>\n Americans were brought up on lectures about the sanctity of the law. We were supposed to revere the Social Security system. Yet when the government discusses millions of phony Social Security numbers used by illegal aliens, it is usually in the cynical sense of whether that con enriches or bankrupts the system \u2014 not whether such rampant fraud is legally and morally wrong.<\/p>\n Most citizens fret if they leave the house without their driver’s license. They get nervous when their car registration or proof of insurance is lost \u2014 and so grow irate that millions of others on the road don’t or can’t share their concern.<\/p>\n Another public irritant was that the present state-sponsored bilingual documents and ballots along with government interpreters were all never legislated. According to a Susquehanna Polling & Research poll, in February 2007, nearly 70 percent of Americans supported an ordinance in a town in Pennsylvania that included making English the sole official language.<\/p>\n Illegal immigration and the efforts to accommodate it have come about from either bureaucratic prerogative \u2014 under pressure from\u00a0employers and ethnic lobbyists \u2014 or court decisions. In contrast, polls, referenda\u00a0and legislative action all reflect a public desire to reduce illegal immigration and close the borders now. In fact, in a June Rassmussen poll, 70 percent of the public supported an immigration bill that does that \u2014 and only that.<\/p>\n I<\/span>f the American public wants the border closed first, and discussion of everything else later, is that really such a\u00a0bad thing?<\/p>\n Were the government to enforce laws already passed \u2014 fine employers for hiring illegal aliens, actually build the approved fences, beef up the border patrol, issue verifiable identification \u2014 we would then soon be dealing with a static population of illegal aliens. And that pool would insidiously shrink, not annually grow.<\/p>\n Some of the 12 million here illegally would willingly return home. Some with criminal records could be deported. Some would marry U.S. citizens. Some could be given work visas. Some could apply for earned citizenship.<\/p>\n The point is that our formidable powers of assimilation would finally catch up and have time to work on a population that would be at last fixed, quantifiable and identifiable. As aliens were more readily integrated with the general citizen population, Spanish would evolve into a helpful second, not a single alternate, language. Wages would rise for workers already here \u2014 many of them soon to be Mexican-American citizens \u2014 without competition from a perpetual influx of illegal aliens who work more cheaply.<\/p>\n Mexico would be forced to deal with rather than export its own problems. Billions in earnings would stay in the United States to help our own entry-level and legal immigrants from Mexico, not be sent back as remittances to relatives.<\/p>\n In short, a savvy public is neither racist nor hysterical in wanting the border closed now. It’s the only comprehensive solution to the present mess of illegal immigration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a92007 Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services After the utter collapse in the Senate last week of a comprehensive immigration bill, Washington insiders\u00a0are blaming everyone and everything.<\/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":[756],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-VU","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3610,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/who-is-illiberal-on-immigration\/","url_meta":{"origin":3590,"position":0},"title":"Who Is Illiberal on Immigration","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The collapse last week of a comprehensive immigration bill in Congress that called for a huge guest-worker program, fast-track visas and a sort of earned citizenship for illegal aliens has unleashed a backlash against those opponents of it who prefer to close the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2007"","block_context":{"text":"June 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/june-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6113,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-senate-immigration-bill-another-legislative-disaster\/","url_meta":{"origin":3590,"position":1},"title":"The Senate Immigration Bill: Another Legislative Disaster","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The \u201ccomprehensive immigration reform\u201d bill cooked up by the Senate has a decided Obamacare stink to it. Like that disaster, the immigration bill is rushing to solve a whole host of complex problems with a massive, muddled bill few Senators will have the time\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":1763,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/another-partisan-push-for-another-comprehensive-reform\/","url_meta":{"origin":3590,"position":2},"title":"Another Partisan Push for Another ‘Comprehensive Reform’?","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"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.\" Now pressure groups are demanding Obama come through on his pledges. In response, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "March 2010"","block_context":{"text":"March 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/march-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3059,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/alligators-moats-and-other-such-nonsense\/","url_meta":{"origin":3590,"position":3},"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":1756,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/is-it-go-easy-or-go-for-broke-mr-president\/","url_meta":{"origin":3590,"position":4},"title":"Is It Go Easy or Go for Broke, Mr. President?","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services After the bloodletting over the healthcare bill, President Obama is now at a crossroads. Not one opposition member voted for his healthcare reform. That, along with tawdry buyoffs for fence-sitting members of the Senate and a reconciliation process that avoids another Senate vote\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "March 2010"","block_context":{"text":"March 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/march-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2178,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/voting-present-on-illegal-immigration\/","url_meta":{"origin":3590,"position":5},"title":"Voting Present on Illegal Immigration","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Immigration activists and Hispanic groups are demanding that President Obama deliver on his promised comprehensive package of immigration reform. Already, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has derided federal sweeps of illegal aliens as \"un-American.\" And recently the Obama administration stripped the federal authority\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "November 2009"","block_context":{"text":"November 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/november-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3590"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3590"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3592,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3590\/revisions\/3592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}