After the utter collapse in the Senate last week of a comprehensive
immigration bill, Washington insiders are blaming everyone and everything.
Supposedly, talk-radio hysteria killed the bill. Or was it the purported
racism of yokels? Or did most of us fail to appreciate the hidden benefits
of open borders so clear only to those in Washington?
In reality, the 1,000-page bill failed because millions 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 - along with a ticket to eventual citizenship - after only a
precursory background check.
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.
What causes this grassroots furor, and where will it lead?
The public thinks anti-terrorism efforts are futile when hundreds of miles
on our southern border are, for mysterious reasons, left wide open.
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 - especially when Mexico already supplies the largest number
by far of our legal immigrants?
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 - not whether such rampant fraud is legally and morally wrong.
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 -
and so grow irate that millions of others on the road don't or can't share
their concern.
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.
Illegal immigration and the efforts to accommodate it have come about from
either bureaucratic prerogative - under pressure from employers and ethnic
lobbyists - or court decisions. In contrast, polls, referenda and
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 - and only that.
If the American public wants the border closed first, and discussion of
everything else later, is that really such a bad thing?
Were the government to enforce laws already passed - fine employers for
hiring illegal aliens, actually build the approved fences, beef up the
border patrol, issue verifiable identification - we would then soon be
dealing with a static population of illegal aliens. And that pool would
insidiously shrink, not annually grow.
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.
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
- many of them soon to be Mexican-American citizens - without competition
from a perpetual influx of illegal aliens who work more cheaply.
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.
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.