[rightwing2]

This is one of the few areas that I disagree with conservative hero Alan Keyes. While he is brilliant on most issues and unequalled in his defense of the right to life, he is dead wrong in advocating a continuation of our wrong-headed policy of open-borders immigration. This feckless immigration policy which amounts to a slow motion euthanasia suicide pill for our nation, is after all is substantially responsible for allowing the terrorists to enter our country and train to be jumbo jet pilots, many of them legally and with drivers licenses to boot. Furthermore, America was not meant to be some kind of balkanized "Olympic Village", but rather a nation of one people united by a common language and culture and allegience to one country as masterfully reiterated by Pat Buchanan in his book, The Death of the West. America was also meant to be a nation united by common values--those delineated in the Judeo-Christian moral code, many of the tenets of which are embodied in US law in regards to determining what constitutes criminal conduct.

This of course does not mean that we as a nation do not embrace immigrant people from other races, religions, etc. We can and should do so. However, it does mean that we limit immigration to those that would prove assets to our country--not the poor, the welfare cases, or those who suffer from infectuous diseases who will most likely take more from America than they give back. Rather it means that we give priority to bringing into our country the hard-working, the self-sufficient and the well-educated from ALL nations and races who can best contribute to making America great and who will be natural assets to the country in general. It also means that we do not reward illegal immigrant criminal felons by granting their children born in the United States automatic citizenship and subsequently allow them to move their entire families to the US. More important still, it means that we work to assimilate those who have immigrated here legally and have recently become citizens into our national culture and ensure their first and preferably only allegience is to the United States and not to Mexico or whatever other country they may have emigrated from.

Keyes' unapologetic support for unrestricted immigration at a time that even pro-open borders President Bush feels the pressure to declare the tightening of security at our borders and a deportation of illegal immigrants who may hail from terrorist states, serves to demonstrate Keyes' lack of understanding about the fundamental problems that resulted in the successful 9-11 terrorist attacks. It also serves to dampen my previous enthusiasm for supporting him as my preferred presidential candidate in 2004. The only other area that comes to mind that I disagree with Keyes is on his support for the fascist idea of national service which was first implemented in Germany 60 years ago and known as the Hitler Youth program. President Bush's whole-hearted embrace of Clinton's Amerikorps program is no better.

[rightwing2]

America First BUMP!

[Miss Marple]

President Bush must be getting ready to close the borders.

[GEC]

A renewed dedication to civic education as part of the immigration process would solve a multitude of problems, and renew our national understanding that immigration is not a curse, but a blessing.

It is civic education which the commies robbed us of during the 1960s and 1970s through to today, replacing it with environmentalism and diversity training.

The smartest man in America has a solution.

[lavaroise]

As much as I agree on a policy of true refugees and brain/technology providers, and not just some impersonating gay baker from France who wants to open a chocolate shop in Miami,

is it ever written in our constitution that we shall let migrants come in????

No.

[lentulusgracchus]

I have to agree with you, and add other grounds for disagreeing with Keyes on this issue -- say it ain't so, Alan!

Even as solid a conservative, Chicago School economist as Milton Friedman avers the obvious, that without labor syndicalism in the 20's and 30's, there'd be no mass middle class that gave Nixon and Reagan the White House. One has to have enough of a stake in the system to have something to lose if the wheels come off, and therefore to be a conservative.

Without the mass labor movement to redress the imbalances in the labor "market" (which was always in oligopsonous imbalance in the 19th century, however much the people who professed to admire classical economics may have praised Adam Smith and the idea of a market-clearing wage), workers would never have participated sufficiently in the creation of wealth in the economy, to begin to become conservatives. In the early 1920's, too many workers worked 60-80 hour weeks at hard physical labor, had no ability to bargain over wages, didn't participate in civic life, and died at alarming rates in heavy-industrial jobs like mining, railroading, and smelting. And Friedman backs that up.

Unless one takes away from prospective employers the ability to flood the market with surplus labor, and then to combine among themselves to keep wages low (as a court case just last year demonstrated in the offshore drilling industry -- a case that has received zero publicity despite having just proved that the offshore drilling contractors maintained their illegal combination for thirty years), then the workers can never negotiate in a fair market for the value of their labor. Which is the whole idea of union-busting and hiring illegals.

For a free-market economy to work, it has to be regulated to some extent in order to remain free, and not become the captive of one or another party. Businessmen insist on free markets -- except when it's time to negotiate in good faith on the cost side. Then they try to cheat. Uncle Milton said it, and I believe it.

[humbletheFiend]

This is just another example of how Dr. Keyes works tirelessly to assist the Administration. Despite the fact that 9-11 has damaged severely the popularity of an open-borders policy, Dr. Keyes unselfishly steps forward to take the hit and deflect criticism of the President. With this kind of leadership and a little bit of luck, President Fox can return to Washington this September and this time the undocumented alien problem can be quickly resolved to everyone's satisfaction.

Thank you, Dr. Keyes.

[ex-snook]

"For these reasons, it is ironic that some argue we must respond to the threat of terror – and to the longstanding challenges of immigration – by abandoning America's tradition of openness to the world."

There is nothing wrong with immigration that American assimilation won't cure. So let's hear from Keyes on that first. I would suggest, Mr Keyes and others, should define the problem before advocating a solution.

Anyone telling Sharon these days about the benefits of immigration?

As an aside, President Carter once criticized Mao on his immigration policies and Mao replied OK - how many millions do you want? Carter shut up.

[uscit]

So Keyes joins the media elite in promoting the idea of the U.S. as the "first universal nation." There must be some kind of liberal virus you get on immigration views when you spend a lot of time in the newsrooms of the major networks. Screw 'em all.

[Badray]

I thought that I had read a different article than the one you posted or at least had read it in a different language. If you read slowly and carefully the last 2 paragraphs, I believe that you will see that Dr Keyes is not recommending open borders, but IS proposing a solution to the problem that does exist.

We must educate not only the legal immigrants that we allow in but also we must educate ourselves. Nothing could be more true.

[Free the USA]

Bump List

[Fish out of Water]

Immigration: Acause of the Clash of Civilizations or a Solution to It ?

[WRhine]

Well Said RW2.

[Love America or move to ......]

I didn't know that Keyes has "Globalist " tendencies, that he considers the rights of foreign nationals to come to America as an important American ideal. Aspiring American political leaders should hold the rights and personal welfore of Americam Citizens as their highest consideration, not the rights of foreign nationals to enter the U.S. All Concerned Americans: Please get more involved politically see the website www.americampac.org

[tenderstone jr.]

Keyes is wrong on this one. Failure to control our borders is a symptom of America in decline.

[american spirit]

This "open borders" idiocy is without a doubt corporate welfare in it's purest form. Imagine being able to run a business where you pay employees a barely livable wage knowing full well that you can have the suckers...oh I meant taxpayers supplement your employees standard of living with a variety of welfare related programs for housing, medical, food, etc. Also, as a result of this nonsense there is now a double standard where some types of busineeses can evade paying FICA, FIT taxes while others who employ Americans get taxed to the hilt. Oops, I thought we were a nation of laws, silly me.

It's becoming more and more obvious to me that the driving force for "open borders" are multinational corp's who care nothing about local communities, the goal is profit at all costs.....and usually those costs are paid for by the suckers, er taxpayers. It's nothing more than a race to the bottom and we suckers, uh taxpayers are far ahead.