Thread: Illegal Detour

http://www.nationalreview.com/ponnuru/p ... 170753.asp

March 17, 2006, 7:53 a.m.
Illegal Detour
Thinking reasonably about immigration.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This piece appears in the March 27, 2006, issue of National Review.

Illegal immigration is not a big problem in America. Okay, let me amend that before pots and pans and worse things come flying at me. America has some serious immigration problems, but they are not distinctively problems of illegal immigration. If we focus narrowly on illegal immigration, we are likely to come up with counterproductive solutions.

Almost all of the things that cause people to complain about illegal immigration are true of much legal immigration as well. If your worry is that illegal immigrants tend to raise government spending, for example, then you ought to be worried about legal immigrants, too. Half of legal immigrants have not gone past high school. Like illegal immigrants, they cost federal and state governments billions of dollars each year.

Or perhaps you’re concerned that illegal immigrants hurt low-income workers by driving low-end wages down. If so, you should be almost as concerned about legal immigration. Illegal immigrants tend to be paid less than legal immigrants, but the difference is small and largely reflects the fact that on average illegal immigrants have slightly less education than legal immigrants.

Maybe you’re afraid that the United States is importing social problems through illegal immigration. Without illegal immigration, we would have fewer poor people and fewer people without health insurance. There would be less strain on our health-care system and less likelihood that your taxes will go up in the future to take care of these problems. The difference with legal immigration, especially the unskilled kind, is one of degree…

Everytime I write a letter, I state illegals, legals and guest workers..

My e-mail response to the author:

Sir,

Not being a subscriber to the National Review I was unable to read the rest of your column concerning this issue. However, the portion available to the general public left a clear impression in my mind that you support illegal immigration and illegal aliens.

America allows more legal immigrants into this country than ALL other nations COMBINED. We are a nation of abundant compassion, as has been proved over and over throughout the last century. But we are a nation of laws, and without the law our nation will soon be no more. The law and the love of freedom is what has held our Republic together for the last 200 years, making the United States the greatest example of liberty to ever exist on this planet.

You said, "If we focus narrowly on illegal immigration, we are likely to come up with counterproductive solutions."

That statement sir, is absolutely ludicrous, and I think you knew that when you wrote it. If we do NOT focus narrowly on ILLEGAL immigration, we will never get a handle on this problem at all. What you suggest would be simply throwing our hands in the air and saying, 'The problem is just too big to be dealt with, so let's just ignore it." That has not, nor ever will be the way Americans get things done.

Approximately 3 MILLION illegal aliens enter this country each year, taking low-skilled, low-wage jobs that are needed by our own citizens and LEGAL immigrants to start their climb up the ladder of 'The American Dream'. Should we allow the poorest of our own people to become a permanent underclass in their own country, brought about by our capitulation to the demands of ILLEGAL ALIENS? I think not.

In closing, I would suggest that you do some research, the kind that is taught in Journalism 101, before you again open your mouth and expose yourself for the 'talking head' of the globalists that you so obviously are.

In utter contempt,
Jeff Hermann