UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL

Palin's nonextremist immigration stand

October 29, 2008

Since Sarah Palin arrived on the national stage, her views on immigration reform have been under wraps and the subject of intense speculation from across the political spectrum.

Now, in a recent interview with Univision, the Spanish-language television network, Palin has staked out a perfectly reasonable position. We know that her position is reasonable not because she agrees with our point of view, though she does, but because she immediately came under fire from the extremes at the right and the left.

You remember our friends at the extremes. They're the folks who complain about everyone and everything, who refuse to say anything positive about anyone else's view, and who have nothing to offer but absolutism and acrimony. They claim to be holding onto their principles, but they're really holding up immigration reform by refusing to compromise.

On the right, that means clinging to the fairy tale that we can round up and deport 12 million illegal immigrants, and that they would stay deported. On the left, it means refusing to accept that the United States has the right to protect its borders. In between these two positions lies the sensible center.

And that is where you find Palin. When Univision anchor Jorge Ramos asked the Alaska governor how she would deal with illegal immigrants and whether they should all be deported, Palin said there was “no wayâ€