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06-10-2005, 01:47 PM #1
Losing Ground On Immigration Issue
http://www.lincolntribune.com/modules/n ... oryid=1388
Opinion : Losing Ground on Immigration Issue
Posted by Editor on 2005/6/10 6:25:56
By JOHN HOOD
OCEAN ISLE BEACH - When a bill offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrants died a couple of weeks ago in the North Carolina General Assembly, advocates vowed to continue the fight another day. Being mostly leftist in political ideology, they seem to have inherited the old notion, originated by German philosophers and expropriated by Marx, that historical forces are inexorably advancing their cause. Legislative setbacks are only potholes on the road to utopia, according to their view, so eventually illegal immigrants will win amnesty, voting rights, and government benefits.
I think they are fooling themselves. Big time.
During my travels in Southeastern North Carolina this week - notice how I avoid the distasteful term "vacation" - I've seen and read plenty of evidence to suggest that public sentiment is turning against, not
towards, the cause of liberalizing immigration laws. In line at a local
bank, I saw several uncomprehending Hispanic workers attempt to cash
their paychecks, be turned away by tellers explaining the bank's
check-cashing policies, and then become the subject of angry
denunciations by staff and patrons.
I saw a group of teenagers laughing at a mostly Hispanic road crew. I
overheard a racial slur at a local restaurant. I read furious letters to
the editor in local newspapers blaming crime, welfare, school
overcrowding, tax increases, and other social ills on illegal aliens. I
heard callers to local talk shows fulminate about lax drivers-license
laws, bilingual education, and affirmative action.
Don't worry: I'm not just being fooled by unrepresentative anecdotes. I
also read some recent polling as well, both in North Carolina and
nationwide, and the sentiment is strongly against illegal immigration -
increasingly so. But wait, say immigration activists: a recent Elon
University Poll found that supporters outnumbered opponents of the bill
to let young illegals attend the University of North Carolina mostly on
the taxpayers' dime. Doesn't that show that the opponents were the ones out of step?
Not at all. I'm a big fan of the Elon Poll, but in this case the
question was worded too artfully to get a useful answer. It specified
that in order to quality for the subsidy, students would have to have
lived in North Carolina for four years and applied for legal status. OK,
but what if a respondent didn't believe that these rules would really be
enforced? And what if he heard "legal status" and thought students would get in-tuition only after becoming legalized? Based on other polling, it is far more likely that opposition was the popular view - a prospect that most state legislators undoubtedly understood and took to heart.
I make these observations not with glee but with dismay. I am an
immigration advocate, not an opponent. I think that many more people
should be able to come legally to the United States to work, go to
school, or otherwise pursue the American Dream, which is really a
universal aspiration for freedom and economic opportunity. But this
cause is losing ground, in part precisely because of foolish statements
and counterproductive policies pushed by self-appointed advocates for
immigrants.
To the extent that North Carolinians believe immigration will cost them,
they will oppose it. If immigration activists continue to demand more
public services, delivered at great expense in multiple languages, while
seeming to spurn old-style efforts at assimilation and Americanization
in favor of multicultural mumbo-jumbo, they will harm the very cause
they hope to advance.
Immigration foes deserve condemnation, too. Their rhetoric is often
thoughtless, and occasionally drips of bigotry. Their economic analysis
is embarrassingly silly. And their political priorities are
out-of-whack. By arguing that "of course" public assistance should be
limited to the native-born, they unintentionally perpetuate the
pernicious notion that Americans of any nativity have a "right" to live
at someone else's expense.
It would be better to argue that immigration is fine as long as it is
legal and results in assimilation, that Americans have a right to insist
that their borders be secured against criminals or terrorists, and that
all would-be immigrants should be checked for criminal records,
diseases, and work prospects to reduce the odds that they will become a burden rather than a boon.
It's not too late for a sensible approach to the issue to gain ground.
But if immigration activists continue to fight for government giveaways,
and against the enforcement of existing immigration laws on issues such as drivers' licenses, then good sense will become impossible for
politicians to espouse and a major political backlash will ensue.
The results won't be pretty - most especially not for immigrants, legal
or illegal.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation, publisher of Carolina Journal.com, and host of the statewide program "Carolina Journal Radio."RIP Butterbean! We miss you and hope you are well in heaven.-- Your ALIPAC friends
Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn
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06-10-2005, 04:43 PM #2
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Gee, I don't know how to respond to this. I think we have just been slapped with a feather.
There are bigots in the anti-illegal movement, but there are bigots in every area of life. So what? That does not deligitimize one bit of it.
As far as the Elon Poll, expert pollsters can make them turn out any way they wish by the wordling of the questions. Come on, everyone knows that was a push poll.
As far as economic analysis being silly, I know a number of very astute economists and they will be the first to tell you that their forecasts are "subject to adjustment." We do know that illegal immigration is costing us dearly in dollars, degradation of the culture, crowding of schools and medical facilities and all the rest. That is quite enough reason to resist it.
Oh yeah, it's ILLEGAL too.When we gonna wake up?
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06-10-2005, 06:30 PM #3
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Re: Losing Ground On Immigration Issue
Originally Posted by butterbean
Update: Freeloading Illegal Alien Continues to Taunt U.S....
03-28-2024, 01:10 PM in illegal immigration News Stories & Reports