Mark Krikorian from the CIS writing in the National Review Online about Lou Dobbs' recent comments. (Dobbs' comments italicized.)

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Friday, November 30, 2007

Lou Dobbs, Soft on Immigration! [Mark Krikorian]

Well, OK, not exactly, but his comments on last night's show after the report on my Center's new profile of the immigrant population suggest there are still parts of the immigration issue he's not getting. This from the transcript:


Well I have to say that what I resent here on the part of the Census Bureau and the center is this conflation again of immigrants and illegal immigrants. Frankly, as we bring in people lawfully into this country, as a matter of public policy, I don't think any of us should care one way or the other about their education level, any of that, or the number of programs, social programs that are being employed.

The issue here is illegal immigration. This government, this federal government, and each of its agencies refuses to deal with the distinction between legal and illegal immigrants and we should never be a part of that conflation and that purposeful obfuscation on the part of those who are pro-amnesty, pro-open borders and pro-massive illegal immigration at any cost to the United States.


We actually did break out some of the characteristics of the illegal population, using widely accepted means for estimating who the illegal aliens are in Census Bureau surveys. But the larger point is that legal status is only one part of the problem we face. Obviously, without credible enforcement, the specifics of policy don't mean much; also, we shouldn't criticize lawful immigrants for making lawful use of whatever welfare programs we've made available to them.

But if legal status were the only problem, why not just amnesty everybody and be done with it? Heck, why not just have open borders? The problem, of course, is that giving an uneducated illegal alien legal status just turns him into an uneducated legal alien — he's still not equipped with the skills to support himself in a modern society and will actually make greater use of taxpayer-funded services than before, because now he's legal. And we also must make choices about the shape of future legal immigration, and low education levels and the resulting poverty and welfare use are clearly things we need to take into account. As Ramesh wrote last year, "Almost all of the things that cause people to complain about illegal immigration are true of much legal immigration as well."

11/30 01:10 PM

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