January 8, 2004
George Bush took another bold and controversial step, this time challenging his base on the subject of immigration reform: Saying the United States needs an immigration system "that serves the American economy and reflects the American dream," President Bush Wednesday outlined an plan to revamp the nation's immigration laws and allow some eight million illegal immigrants to obtain legal status as temporary workers. "Over the generations, we have received energetic, ambitious optimistic people from every part of the world. By tradition and conviction, our country is a welcoming society," he said. "Every generation of immigrants has reaffirmed the wisdom of remaining open to the talents and dreams of the world. As a nation that values immigration and depends on immigration, we should have immigration laws that work and make us proud," he said. "Yet, today, we do not." So far, what I've seen and read on Bush's new immigration initiative...
Mexican President Vicente Fox expressed his pleasure with George Bush's new immigration initiative today: President Vicente Fox on Thursday praised the immigration reform proposed by President Bush and claimed it as an achievement for his own administration. But Fox and other Mexican officials indicated the new American proposal did not meet all their goals. "We're going for more. We're going for more," he told reporters during a visit to a shelter for street children. Fox has repeatedly urged Bush to legalize the millions of Mexicans who cross the border illegally to work in the United States. The money they send home is Mexico's second-largest source of foreign income, behind oil. No one will be surprised to hear that Fox is happy; almost any change from the status quo has to be an improvement, with the exception of mass expulsion. Fox probably would prefer an amnesty program, but he's not going...
George Bush, in his proposal to reform the issue of illegal immigration, seems to have done what the election and the Nine Dwarves couldn't -- split the right and shake his base with an outbreak of pragmatic centrism. The day after Bush's proposal for a new guest-worker program and its extension to illegal workers already in the US, the conservatives are lighting up the Internet with dissension and outrage. For instance, the Corner at NRO has several voices all sounding the same alarms: amnesty and surrender, and they're not at all happy about it. So far, very little objection has been made to the concept of a guest-worker program; most of the bandwidth is being eaten up by the idea of allowing those already here to enter the program as a sort of fait accompli. It's time for a reality check, folks. We have somewhere between 8 to 10 million...
November 10, 2004
Arizona voters passed a referendum last week that requires people to demonstrate their citizenship when registering to vote, produce ID when actually voting, and identify themselves as citizens or legal residents when receiving government services, despite the opposition of leading state politicians of both parties. Despite being outspent 5-1 along with all of the opposition, Arizonans sent a message on immigration to Washington by voting in favor, 56-44, and other states now may copy Arizona's effort: Initiative proponents, arguing that illegal immigration in Arizona is out of control, said Proposition 200's passage on Nov. 2 was a crucial first step in reducing a glut of illegal immigration and sends messages to government officials in both Washington and Mexico that illegal immigration will not be condoned. The initiative -- opposed by key elected officials in Arizona, including Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano and Republican Sen. John McCain; several Hispanic advocacy groups; labor...
January 27, 2005
In response to the omission of border security from the Senate GOP's agenda, James Sensenbrenner has taken up the slack in the House. The Los Angeles Times reports that Sensenbrenner will force the White House to honor its pledge to him over the compromise in last year's intelligence reorganization by supporting border-security improvements in this session: In a move that could put him at odds with President Bush, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee introduced legislation Wednesday that would effectively deny driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, tighten requirements for political asylum and complete the border fence between California and Mexico. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) said the measures would help secure the nation from attacks like those carried out by Al Qaeda on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He unveiled his legislation shortly after Bush, at a White House news conference, reaffirmed that immigration reform was...
March 8, 2005
FBI Director Robert Mueller testified before Congress today that illegal aliens from countries with significant al-Qaeda ties have crossed the Mexican border into the US, while terrorists have now begun assuming Hispanic last names to blend into the flood of immigrants: "We are concerned, Homeland Security is concerned about special interest aliens entering the United States," Mueller said, using a term for people from countries where al-Qaida is known to be active. Under persistent questioning from Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, Mueller said he was aware of one route that takes people to Brazil, where they assume false identities, and then to Mexico before crossing the U.S. border. He also said that in some instances people with Middle Eastern names have adopted Hispanic last names before trying to get into the United States. Our inability to secure our Southern border amounts to the single most embarassing and preventable security lapse since...
August 24, 2005
DHS chief Michael Chertoff spoke to reporters at a breakfast meeting yesterday and gave an "unusually blunt assessment" of the security issues involving the southern border of the US. He described the difficulties in keeping illegals from crossing the border at will and even keeping those caught in custody, and described plans to correct the situation. While far from a complete solution, Chertoff at least gives the impression that the Bush administration might have started to take the problem more seriously: Acknowledging public frustration over illegal immigrants, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Tuesday that the federal government's border control efforts must be significantly strengthened. "We have decided to stand back and take a look at how we address the problem and solve it once and for all," Mr. Chertoff said at a breakfast meeting with reporters. "The American public is rightly distressed about a situation in which they feel...
October 30, 2005
The Los Angeles Times takes a long, hard look today at Mara Salvatrucha, the international criminal conspiracy that uses illegal immigration into the US both as a fundraiser and as a staging ground for the most hard-core gangsterism currently seen on the streets. MS-13, as the Central American-based syndicate is better known, goes back to the last amnesty offered by the United States and now has its tentacles throughout North and Central America. The US efforts to interdict the gangsters have been laughable at best: On a sweltering afternoon, an unmarked white jetliner taxies to a remote terminal at the international airport here and disgorges dozens of criminal deportees from the United States. Marshals release the handcuffed prisoners, who shuffle into a processing room. Of the 70 passengers, at least four are members of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, a gang formed two decades ago near MacArthur Park west of the...
November 25, 2005
In a disturbing incident that has received little national attention, the US Border Patrol found itself in retreat on US soil after interdicting a dump truck full of marijuana on US Interstate 10 last week. The truck made a run for the border but got stuck on a riverbed. While the Border Patrol started to unload the estimated three tons of weed, a larger armed group apparently comprised at least in part by the Mexican military forced the Border Patrol away from the vehicle and bulldozed it back into Mexico: The incident began when Border Patrol agents tried to stop the dump truck on Interstate 10, sheriff's officials said. The truck fled to Mexico in the Neely's Crossing area. The truck got stuck in the riverbed, and the driver took off running. Agents "started to retrieve the bundles (of marijuana) when the armed subjects appeared," said Agent Ramiro Cordero, a...
November 27, 2005
In need of some momentum in Congress for legislative traction, George Bush has finally decided to start addressing illegal immigration and the porous southern border of the United States. After seeing almost his entire legislative agenda stalled out between the Iraq war debates and two Supreme Court nominations, Bush needs to apply a push to get some successes from Congress early in the next session: President Bush will make stops in Arizona and Texas this week to address an issue that has divided some members of his own Republican Party -- illegal immigration. ... A senior administration official said that the president, in a speech on immigration, will focus on three areas: border security, enforcement and a temporary worker program. The official said the president will talk about "additional resources and the use of technology to secure the border," and will discuss it in terms of national security and the...
January 21, 2006
Earlier this afternoon, I had an opportunity to interview Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ), who came to Congress during the heady days of the Contract With America and the rise of the Republican majority. Rep. Hayworth has written a new book that has just been released by Regnery, Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security, and The War On Terror. The Congressman took an hour out of his day to talk to CQ about illegal immigration, the guest worker proposal, and how the open border in the south presents a clear and present danger to American security. It's fair to say that Hayworth has a front-row seat to the many issues that illegal immigration causes. He has lived most of his adult life in Arizona, one of the front-line states in the massive long-term invasion (as he sees it) across the Mexican border. The lack of action from the federal government,...
February 4, 2006
The Guardian reports that American crops have been left to rot in the fields, thanks to a sudden dearth of migrant workers for farm work. Is this the result of better border enforcement? No -- it turns out that the illegal immigrants that do the work Americans don't want have decided they don't want them either: After 15 years working in the fields of California for American farmers, Mr Camacho has found a new life: two months ago he started working at the Golden Acorn Casino. "It pays better," he says. "In the fields you work all hours, it's cold and hard and you don't get more than $7 [about £4] an hour. With this job I have regular hours, I know when I'm going to work and I know what I'm going to earn." Mr Camacho is not unique. Agricultural labourers, almost exclusively Latinos and at least two-thirds of...
March 23, 2006
Senator Hillary Clinton finally weighed in on the immigration debate yesterday by scolding the Republicans for focusing on border enforcement rather than an amnesty program. She told an audience of immigrant leaders in New York that Republicans would have criminalized the Good Samaritan and probably Jesus as well: Accusing Republicans of betraying family values, Senator Clinton said a House immigration bill would turn "probably even Jesus himself" into a criminal. A relative latecomer to the charged immigration debate, Mrs. Clinton yesterday spoke passionately to a gathering of a broad spectrum of New York's immigrant leaders. Her comments come amid a local groundswell of activity in preparation for a Senate vote Monday that is expected to determine the nature of immigration reform. ... Mrs. Clinton, who previously said the bill would move America toward a "police state," also invoked biblical language yesterday. "It is certainly not in keeping with my understanding...
March 26, 2006
I grew up in the Los Angeles area, and while I enjoyed the area for its diversity and its many fine choices for living, working, and entertainment, it has always had an aura on unreality. Angelenos literally demonstrated this yesterday by rallying a half-million people in favor of unsecured national borders in a time of war: A crowd estimated by police at more than 500,000 boisterously marched in Los Angeles on Saturday to protest federal legislation that would crack down on undocumented immigrants, penalize those who help them and build a security wall along the U.S.' southern border. Spirited but peaceful marchers — ordinary immigrants alongside labor, religious and civil rights groups — stretched more than 20 blocks along Spring Street, Broadway and Main Street to City Hall, tooting kazoos, waving American flags and chanting, "Sí se puede!" (Yes we can!). Well, that description doesn't show any reportorial bias, does...
March 28, 2006
The Senate will begin debate tomorrow on the new immigration-reform plan voted out of the Judiciary Committee earlier today. The comprehensive bill will create another pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens twenty years after the last time the government thought that we had illegal immigration licked and waters down the stringent border security that the House demanded: Under the Judiciary Committee bill, illegal immigrants who pay a $1,000 fine and back taxes would be able to apply for a three-year work visa, renewable for a second three-year period. In the fourth year of work, the visa holder could begin a five-year path toward citizenship. A second guest worker program would open up legal agriculture jobs to 1.5 million undocumented farm workers. The measure would also add as many as 14,000 new border patrol agents by 2011 to the current force of 11,300 agents and would authorize a "virtual wall" of...
March 29, 2006
It's hard to imagine that the schoolchildren who engaged in a pro-illegal immigration rally yesterday helped their cause much, except to harden the polarization already felt on both sides of the issue. While our politicians in Washington talked about how the illegals came to the US to enjoy the American dream, their actions speak much more towards the reconquista that, as Michelle Malkin has written, lies at the heart of the triumphalism that they now espouse. The Los Angeles area school districts allowed 22,000 students to protest border security and the enforcement of immigration law Monday, and it produced moments like this one: That is a Mexican flag over an upside-down American flag on the flagpole behind the students that raised them. Note the display of unbridled patriotism of these American students -- for Mexico. Of course, the schools themselves see it differently. They say that the Mexican flag doesn't...
March 30, 2006
George Will makes his conservative case for the moderate approach to immigration reform, giving enough room for hard-line enforcement while arguing for eventual absorption of the illegals already inside the US. However, he starts out with an almost unforgivable analogy that will have border-enforcement readers seeing red before they ever get to the rest of his arguments: America, the only developed nation that shares a long -- 2,000-mile -- border with a Third World nation, could seal that border. East Germany showed how: walls, barbed wire, machine gun-toting border guards in towers, mine fields, large, irritable dogs. And we have modern technologies that East Germany never had: sophisticated sensors, unmanned surveillance drones, etc. East Berlin? Perhaps George doesn't quite recall the purpose of the Berlin Wall, but I guarantee you it wasn't to keep West Berliners out of East Berlin. The East German government and its Soviet masters built that...
I'm in the middle of another e-mail meltdown, so I'm going to send you over to Brant at Strange Women Lying In Ponds, who reports what Southwesterners have known about the reconquista movement for years. It hardly argues for assimilation but instead demands a separatism that makes any effort on our part to enable it self-defeating. And as Brant notes, it has a healthy streak of anti-Semitism -- as if we need any more of that than we already have. Back when the e-mail works .......
March 31, 2006
Today's USA Today headline: "Bush stumps for 'guest worker' program in Cancun" He might find it more effective to stump for the program while in the United States. Do we really need an advertising campaign in Mexico calling for even more border crossing? In the meantime, here are the images that the Mexica Movement want to promote from the anti-border enforcement rallies held earlier this week: Yes, American legislators as Nazis. Nice. Of course, the anti-Semitism of their own movements wouldn't be germane, would it? Here's another sign they proudly display at their site showing how much the reconquitas love the United States: That matches up with a description provided with another image that shows American flags held by marchers. Do they point to this to show their love of their adopted country? Not exactly: One of the more negative parts of the march was when American flags were passed...
April 1, 2006
The demonstrations this week do not have any relation to the American civil-rights movement, Joe Hicks writes in today's LA Times Op-Ed section. Hicks, a former director in the West Coast contingent of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference -- Martin Luther King's organization -- has spent his life working for civil rights but makes clear that those who cross the border illegally are, well, criminals by definition: THE DEBATE over illegal immigration has reached a vigorous boil, with contrasting bills in the House and Senate and hundreds of thousands of protesters demonstrating nationwide. The complexities of this debate seem lost on many of the protesters. Many claim that what lies beneath reform efforts is raw racism, leading to the view that the recent protests signal a new civil rights movement. It's simply not true. This nation's civil rights movement of the 1960s broke the back of white supremacy that prevented...
April 4, 2006
The traditional Communist holiday of May Day has been selected for a boycott protesting the push to secure the southern border of the United States, the Washington Times reports this morning. The timing is not coincidental, as the Stalinist sympathizers International ANSWER has led the effort to stage the economic protest: Immigration rights organizers today will call for a nationwide boycott of work, school and shopping on May 1 to protest congressional efforts to clamp down on illegal aliens as part of pending immigration-reform legislation. he "Great American Boycott of 2006" is only one in a series of large-scale events the protesters hope will sway lawmakers to put millions of illegal aliens on track toward permanent residency and U.S. citizenship. "The massive March 25 march and rally in Los Angeles of well over one million immigrant workers and their supporters -- along with protests and student walkouts throughout the United...
April 6, 2006
In the hours after the announcement of a compromise on immigration reform, it seems that details have been might scarce -- never a good sign when legislators announce an agreement. If the deal actually satisfied anyone, the politicians would have had the wonks out in force in an attempt to impress the media and calm the passionate. The lack of detail signals that the compromise may be little more than an easy way out of a contentious battle. The Washington Post and the New York Times both cover the story but neither has much on the particulars of the deal. The Post notes that the compromise keeps the temporary worker program and the path to citizenship: The compromise would give illegal immigrants who have been in the United States for more than five years a chance to legalize their status and, eventually, to become U.S. citizens if they pay a...
April 7, 2006
The more we find out about this immigration "compromise", the more the term sounds exactly applicable. Kris Kobach, an attorney representing plaintiffs in court cases against states that defy immigration law by handing out government benefits to illegals, warns us in the New York Post about the fine print in this Senate bill that threatens to surrender the southern border to all comers: With a few exceptions, today's immigration judges (who serve for life) are dedicated to enforcing the law, and they do a difficult job well. This bill forces all immigration judges to step down after serving seven years - and restricts replacements to attorneys with at least five years' experience practicing immigration law. Virtually the only lawyers who'll meet that requirement are attorneys who represent aliens in the immigration courts - who tend to be some of the nation's most liberal lawyers, and who are certainly unlikely as...
The ever-reliable Charles Krauthammer gets to the heart of the Senate abdication on national security yesterday in his new column titled "First A Wall -- Then Amnesty". Krauthammer correctly identifies border security as the element of immigration most in need of reform and its rightful position as the highest legislative priority of the issue: Every sensible immigration policy has two objectives: (1) to regain control of our borders so that it is we who decide who enters and (2) to find a way to normalize and legalize the situation of the 11 million illegals among us. ... If the government can demonstrate that it can control future immigration, there will be infinitely less resistance to dealing generously with the residual population of past immigration. And, as Mickey Kaus and others have suggested, that may require that the two provisions be sequenced. First, radical border control by physical means. Then, shortly...
The compromise legislation announced by Senators from both parties has collapsed in today's session, garnering less than forty votes in a procedural vote that required at least sixty: The Senate sidetracked sweeping immigration legislation Friday amid partisan recriminations, leaving in doubt prospects for passage of a measure that offered the hope of citizenship to millions of men, women and children living in the United States illegally. The bill gained only 38 votes on a key procedural test, far short of the 60 needed to advance. The vote marked a turnabout from Thursday, when the Senate's two leaders had both hailed a last-minute compromise as a breakthrough in the campaign to enact the most far-reaching changes in immigration law in two decades. But Republicans soon accused Democrats of trying to squelch their amendments, while Democrats accused the GOP of trying to kill their own bill by filibuster. The filibuster threat came...
April 11, 2006
The AP reports that House Republicans are considering modifications in their immigration-reform bill that will make it easier for the Senate to absorb it into whatever version they can pass. The changes involve the two most controversial parts of the House effort, making "illegal presence" a felony and broadening the notion of accessory to potentially include religious outreach and charity workers: Following huge nationwide protests, Republicans on Tuesday moved to possibly change two key provisions in a get-tough immigration bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. One would turn millions of illegal immigrants into felons and the other has raised concerns that people who provide them humanitarian relief would be punished. Top Republicans insisted that neither is their intent. Their verbal commitments to revisit those provisions came a day after hundreds of thousands of people held demonstrations nationwide, provoked by the bill that would also erect a fence along...
April 13, 2006
The more things change, the more they stay the same... Just as with the amnesty program that Simpson-Mazzoli gave us in 1986, the Senate's plan to track guest workers into American citizenship has had an effect on illegal immigration, but not the one the Senate intended. MS-NBC reports that border crossings have jumped in the past few days as people attempt to get into the country in time to take advantage of this latest flavor of amnesty: At a shelter overflowing with migrants airing their blistered feet, Francisco Ramirez nursed muscles sore from trekking through the Arizona desert — a trip that failed when his wife did not have the strength to go on. He said the couple would rest for a few days, then try again, a plan echoed by dozens reclining on rickety bunk beds and carpets tossed on the floor after risking violent bandits and the harsh...
The DHS agency in charge of immigration enforcement makes a strange assumption in a case that sounds like a big problem in the war on terror. After shutting down a conspiracy that smuggled dozens of people from India and Pakistan into the US, Immigration and Customs Enforcement says that none had any connection to terrorism. Read the AP's description of this smuggling ring and decide for yourselves: U.S. and Canadian authorities announced Wednesday that they have broken up a human smuggling ring suspected of illegally shepherding dozens of Indian and Pakistani nationals into Washington state from British Columbia. To date, a federal grand jury in Seattle has indicted 14 U.S. and Canadian men for their roles in the alleged scheme. Twelve had been arrested as of Wednesday. Leigh Winchell, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Seattle, said investigators on both sides of the border have...
The Arizona state legislature voted to enact a bill that would require its law-enforcement agencies to arrest illegal immigrants for violating state laws against criminal trespass, a measure that would trump resistance to cooperating with federal agencies in rounding up illegal immigrants. The bill now goes to Democratic governor Janet Napolitano, who has made veto noises on this issue: Two days after a big immigration march in Phoenix, the Arizona Legislature on Wednesday approved legislation to make illegal immigrants subject to the state's criminal trespassing law. The Senate approved the bill on a 17-12 vote and the House followed with a 33-27 vote, with both Republican-led chambers voting nearly along party lines. Supporters of the bill contend it would provide "a second line of defense" behind the border patrol by enabling state and local law enforcement officers to arrest illegal immigrants. ... The bill was sent to Democratic Gov. Janet...
April 15, 2006
The Democrats may have angered a key component of their political base with their abject pandering to the immigration protests the past few weeks. The head of the largest union has blasted Ted Kennedy for pushing his guest-worker/amnesty plan as an attack on the living standard for American workers: Labor unions, which are among the Democratic Party's most loyal supporters, are deeply at odds with the party's push for a guest-worker program, and many Capitol Hill aides say erosion of labor's support undermined the Senate immigration-reform bill last week. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says guest-worker programs supported by top Democrats such as Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and Dianne Feinstein are a "bad idea and harm all workers." "They cast workers into a perennial second-class status and unfairly put their fates into their employers' hands," said Mr. Sweeney, whose organization represents 13 million workers in 54 unions. This has split the...
April 17, 2006
The massive demonstrations of the past few weeks of illegal immigrants and their supporters waving Mexican flags and supporting "la Raza" may have inspired some politicians, like Ted Kennedy, to maneuver themselves to the forefront of the movement for amnesty, attempting to pander to the show of force that the protestors intended. However, it appears from electoral polling that the same demonstrations have propelled hard-line border-security politicians to greater popularity as the protests and their demands for benefits repelled a large segment of the existing electorate: As lawmakers set aside the debate on immigration legislation for their spring recess, the protests by millions around the nation have escalated the policy debate into a much broader battle over the status of the country's 11 million illegal immigrants. While the marches have galvanized Hispanic voters, they have also energized those who support a crackdown on illegal immigration. "The size and magnitude of...
April 18, 2006
See if we can sort this out together. Our governor, Tim Pawlenty, has threatened to veto any funding for the Minnesota college system that includes DREAM, new legislation that allows the children of illegal immigrants to take advantage of state-resident tuition fees instead of the rate charged to students from outside Minnesota. This is similar to the DREAM Act that Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) has attempted to work into the Senate version of immigration reform. The Star Tribune reports on the standoff between the Minnesota legislature and the governor: Gov. Tim Pawlenty has asked a House committee to reject a proposal that would allow some illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition to state colleges and universities. An identical measure died last year when Pawlenty threatened to veto funding bills for the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system (MnSCU) if the provision was included. And this...
April 20, 2006
The planned walkout of illegal immigrants for May 1 has lost steam according to a report by the Washington Post. Two weeks after the call for the boycott and one-day strike, a panel of immigration activists announced yesterday that they would encourage people to stay at work but to sign petitions and join protests on May 1: A panel of immigration activists said yesterday that it will not encourage workers and families to walk off the job and keep their children from school as part of a May 1 boycott, but will hold voter-recruitment and petition drives instead. The announcement by activists from the District, Chicago and Los Angeles at a news conference in Washington underlined the split among the mostly Latino activist groups that led huge demonstrations in more than 140 cities in recent weeks, and shows that the grass-roots movement is operating at cross purposes toward the same...
April 21, 2006
The roundup of over 1100 illegal immigrants working for a Houston pallet supply company signals the start of a new effort by the Department of Homeland Security to focus enforcement efforts on the companies that hire illegals. The managers of IFCO face up to ten years in prison after being arrested during the roundup for defying immigration and workplace laws against hiring illegals: The apprehension on Wednesday of more than 1,100 illegal immigrants employed by a pallet supply company based in Houston, as well as the arrest of seven of its managers, represented the start of a more aggressive federal crackdown on employers, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday. Describing the hiring of millions of illegal workers, in some cases, as a form of organized crime, Mr. Chertoff said the government would try to combat the practice with techniques similar to those used to shut down the mob. "We...
April 22, 2006
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist pens a column for today's National Review that demonstrated that GOP leadership has heard the conservative base on immigration. It falls short in several respects, but Frist's article shows that the message has finally started sinking into the stubborn heads of legislators: Democrat obstruction torpedoed comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate earlier this month. At the same time, concerns about getting our border under control came into clear relief with news this week of the Department of Homeland Security's effort to crack down on egregious violations of immigration law. It is time to both secure our borders and reform our immigration system. So next week, the Senate will act to increase funding for border security-first. And then, before the end of May, the Senate must again take up-and finish-comprehensive immigration system reform. When it takes up the immigration reform, the Senate must address border security,...
While conservatives argue for closing the southern border and enforcing the law to deport illegal immigrants, our opposition argues for a supposedly more humane approach of either completely open borders or the granting of amnesty to the twelve million who have already come to the US. That argument wins on the basis of understandable sympathy for poor people who want to escape crushing poverty in their native land, primarily Mexico; it makes the conservative argument sound heartless and cruel. But is it really? An e-mail I received this evening from Eusebia Flores at Artcamp Artesanas Campesinas in Guerrero, Mexico argues the exact opposite -- that the lure of American dollars literally subsidizes the abandonment of Mexico and families by the men who could otherwise have helped transform the destitute Mexican economy: Dear friends in the United States.... We are Mexican women from villages in the southern Mexico state of Guerrero....
April 23, 2006
Yesterday, I posted an alternative look at the immigration debate -- the impact that unfettered illegal immigration has had on the Mexican communities abandoned by the men who come to the United States. Eusebia Flores at Artcamp Artesanas Campesinas sent a missive that implored Americans to send their men back home to Mexico to assist them in rebuilding Tecalpulco through their growing business of handmade crafts. I asked a series of follow-up questions, and Eusebia sent her reply this afternoon. CQ: How many of your able-bodied men have left Tecalpulco for the US, on a percentage basis (your best estimate, not looking for literal accuracy)? EF: More than 100 are in the United States, about 40%. This is an estimate based on a comment made in my presence by the comisario of Tecalpulco. CQ: Do they send money back to Tecalpulco, and if so, how does that support your community?...
April 24, 2006
The two-week Easter break for Congress ends today, and the immigration debate begins anew. The New York Times reports that both parties in the Senate have expressed a desire to get a bill passed well before the elections but refuse to be "stampeded", as Arlen Specter put it: Prodded by large demonstrations and the prospect of another on the horizon, Senate leaders will try to revive stalled immigration legislation this week, with some urging President Bush to mediate personally the sharp differences among Republicans on the volatile issue. Two weeks after the Senate walked away from its immigration debate, leaders of both parties are expressing a new sense of urgency to act before the November midterm elections. Mr. Bush, who has made an immigration bill a centerpiece of his legislative agenda and who could use a victory on Capitol Hill to revive his flagging second term, is expected to address...