He’s right. Let’s discuss the issue of immigration in all its aspects - controlling illegal immigration and also controlling legal immigration. No more “political refugee” Muslims (most of whom are unwelcome in their home countries because they were involved with militant Islamic groups or movements), for example, who come here and go directly on state aid and no more “family reunification” that enables these same people to bring family members here and, again, put them right on welfare or even SSI.
Let’s work out a short-term visa program for people from neighboring countries (who share much of our history and our values) to come here and work at jobs that our aging population can no longer fill. Let’s figure out how to sort out the huge accumulation of illegal immigrants (illegal simply because there wasn’t any provision for them to come here legally and then return home) without destroying the economies of places in which they are concentrated, and also without losing their skills and capacities.
Let’s discuss the way Obama has simply issued executive orders to readjust the legal immigrant mix so that we get more people from “traditionally Muslim countries,” to the detriment of people from places like Canada and South America, who just want to come here to work, not to impose Islamic law on us.
But instead, discussions of immigration have turned into nothing but anti-Hispanic hate fests that would make the Know Nothings blush. Nobody really wants to discuss immigration with a view to making any changes in it, but instead to spew invective. And this is what the Dems are taking advantage of, not only to make the GOP look bad with a large potential voting block, but to destroy GOP candidates who actually want to work on the issue.
I got sick of people here referring to “Jorge” Bush, ironically just because he actually had enough courage to make suggestions about dealing with immigration, and now I have seen them referring to “Ricardo” Perry. But of course, none of these same critics have any realistic or positive solutions of their own, which is one of the reasons I have thought several of them (the more toxic, hate-filled ones) are probably secret Dem operatives.
Good post!
The reasonable approach to illegal immigration was taken in 1986 with Simpson-Mazzoli, which provided amnesty for illegals meeting certain requirements, and also for strict enforcement to prevent a recurrence of the problem.
They expected 1.5 million to apply for amnesty and got more than 3 million. That one-time amnesty was to clear up the problem once and for all.
How did the reasonable approach work out?
Nothing will solve this problem but an end to amnesties and strict enforcement of the border, strict enforcement of visa programs, and strict enforcement internally, particularly at the employer level.
Presidents like both of the Jorge Bushes, and Slick Willie Clinton, and Zero are the reason the reasonable approach tried in 1986 failed totally and gave us an even bigger problem. And now another border state politician, Ricardo Perry, promises more of the same whether he’s honest enough to admit it or not.
They all earned those nicknames many times over.
Just about all the demagoguery these days comes from the apologists and advocates for even more amnesty and more illegal immigration.
The 9/11 terrorists were here on various visas, and some had overstayed their visas. The illegal immigration problem will not be solved until we secure our borders (which to me includes keeping up with/deporting those who overstay their visas). That's where Reagan messed up....he trusted the Democrats to secure the borders AFTER amnesty was granted. We don't need to make that mistake again.