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| The elephant in the room |
| 2004-10-06 |
| By Michelle Malkin You know what makes me nervous about President Bush? It's not his facial expressions. Nor his verbal clumsiness. I don't care about his alleged weakness at the podium. What concerns me more than anything else is his demonstrated weakness at our borders. Immigration enforcement is the six-ton elephant in the room. Barely two sentences were devoted to border control in the first presidential debate, despite the fact that the major issue of the showdown was leadership on national security. Both President Bush and Sen. Kerry bloviated about throwing more money at the Department of Homeland Security, while ignoring the fundamental problem: Our immigration laws are being broken en masse because America is unwilling to enforce them — clearly, consistently and unapologetically — until it is too late. The vice presidential candidates are no better. Dick Cheney, alas, has dutifully defended the administration's abominable amnesty plan, which amounts to a mass government pardon of illegal visa overstayers and border crossers and deportation fugitives at a time of war. (We are at war, aren't we, gentlemen?) For his part, Sen. John Edwards supports the just-as-awful Democratic version of this illegal alien incentive policy. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #6 We are now under a kind of de facto affirmative action immigration policy that vastly favors Mexicans.. What's worse is that even among Mexican illegals, there's no evidence that we've got the best and the brightest. Seems to me that the intelligent individuals aren't stupid enough to try the illegal immigration route anyway.. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-10-07 12:23:23 AM |
| #5 We should be increasing the number of well-educated Indian, Chinese and Korean immigrants by an order of magnitude at least. They are a huge plus to this nation. Silicon Valley (and increasingly Wall Street as well) would suffer immensely without them. Craig Barrett of Intel and every other tech CEO is warning of the huge danger we face if we do not increase immigration. If our native-born kids were more keen on math and science, it wouldn't be a problem, but we still have technical jobs going begging in this country. Bring on the Asian scientists and technicians. And European ones, and latins, and scientists from any other region or nation. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-10-06 11:39:53 AM |
| #4 I am as open to Mexican immigration as I am to Nepalese, Australian, Brazilian, or any other group-I just don't favor one nationality over another. We are now under a kind of de facto affirmative action immigration policy that vastly favors Mexicans (to the detriment of others); I don't support preferential treatment for races or nationalities. Yes, we are a country of immigrants and you make good points about aging boomers & native borns. That is why it is important to foster a good mix of immigrants. Each has somethign positive to bring. I like your advanced degree concept. |
| Posted by: jules 187 2004-10-06 11:27:39 AM |
| #3 Falling birthrates among the native-born population and aging boomers both indicate our economic dependence on continued immigration. Without it we're facing the same catastrophe as the aging Europeans. So if you don't care for mexican immigration, then you need to propose a substitute. My own proposal would be to allow anyone with an advanced degree in a hard science or engineering who passes a security test. Fling the doors wide open to the world's best and brightest. Give us your brainiacs, yearning to be free (of bureaucracy, poor funding, lack of venture capital).... |
| Posted by: lex 2004-10-06 11:08:56 AM |
| #2 It isn't just a question of borders that are easy to breach (although that is at the top of the list of concerns), it is a question of future US demographics (is one group favored over others, and what are the political consequences of those demographics), keeping the number of middle class Americans stable, and determining whether or not we will become a country with 2 official languages (which all citizens will be expected to speak) or a US whose citizens speak many languages but adhere to one common language-English-for communication in business, social institutions, and government. |
| Posted by: jules 187 2004-10-06 10:59:52 AM |
| #1 No one is going to antagonize the Latino vote this close to the election. Any moves to tighten our southern border won't come until after the election if then. The Democrats want open borders because every illegal is another absentee vote for them. You don't have to live in southern California to appreciate the magnitude of the influx of Mexicans into this country. You can see it in rural Indiana, in Iowa, in Georgia, just about everywhere but Hawaii and Alaska. |
| Posted by: RWV 2004-10-06 10:28:25 AM |