Thread: Blown opportunities to manage immigration

Blown opportunities to manage immigration

June 5, 2007


My View: T. Craig Ladwig
Blown opportunities to manage immigration
The problem was simple -- or at least seemed so when we were young and callow fellows.

A few of us Senate staffers met in a Capitol Hill cafeteria to hear representatives of a group, now forgotten, express their concern about the U.S.-Mexican border. The group had statistical projections of what the situation would be in 10, 20 and 30 years if nothing were done.

An aide to Sen. Richard Lugar was there. The senator and others on the Foreign Relations Committee were being asked to help make a relatively easy fix in federal law. It would have minimized the economic incentives (social-service net, citizenship by birth, tax-free employment) that were driving a spurt in illegal immigration.

The group's suggestions were reasonable. The projections were believable. And when we left Washington several months later we expected to be reading that the problem was solved, that order had been restored along the border.

That was 1981. The spurt is now a flood, the problem a catastrophe. The predictable economic, political and social chaos resulting from a confused national border is obvious to all. More important, there is a crisis of confidence in our government's ability to ensure that most basic thing a government ensures -- justice.
Nations failing that don't do well. Read Toynbee's classic "A Study of History." Read the Old Testament. Read the 300-page bill approved by the Senate (even longer than the Bible). You will not be encouraged.
How did a situation that could have been solved 26 years ago with a few signatures on some bureaucratic scrap come to threaten our very national identity?

It's because the problem was never the problem. Sen. Lugar knew how to solve it back in 1981. Even the staff lawyers knew how to define a border and assign citizenship. The problem was that nobody knew how to solve it without affecting the surety of reelection.

That still is the problem -- only it is bigger, much bigger. You can tell how big it is by how carefully the politicians are trying to create the impression that it is a new problem.

Indeed, they would have you believe that the problem just dropped out of the sky -- like a tornado or some other atmospheric disaster. (Politicians seem to like atmospheric disasters; easier to handle than questions of justice, more conducive to spending other people's money.)

The Senate bill in fact treats the border as some sort of disaster zone with its own set of unique laws, special considerations, accommodations and privileges, all of which must be arbitrated by -- you guessed it -- those who failed to solve the problem in the first place.

But can't a problem get so big that Washington has no choice but to solve it, regardless of politics?
Some think not. The ability of ensconced power to ignore change, however profound, may be infinite. Two generations of Bushes, for example, have been in a position to solve this particular problem with a pen stroke. The one now in office, incredibly, blames us. He says citizens who reject the Rube Goldberg contraption that is his immigration policy "don't want what's right for America."

So our leadership has decided it is better for all involved if the problem is solved by our grandchildren. It is especially better, please know, for those involved who otherwise would be held accountable for not solving it.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... /OPINION01

So our leadership has decided it is better for all involved if the problem is solved by our grandchildren. It is especially better, please know, for those involved who otherwise would be held accountable for not solving it.

I think the so-called "leadership" would be well advised to re-think that position...Every single one of them is under a microscope, and the fallout from bad political choices now will certainly not be forgotten later. I for one intend to keep score, and trumpet the failures of treacherous turncoats and sellouts when their reign of deception nears it's next proposed cycle! There is a lot of time to save for political advertising, organize opposition, and rally supporters between now and the next election. One thing is certain, if S.1348 ever gets out of the barn, there will be a lot of voters toes stomped on between now and Fall '08!

It would also be good for them to note that with so many adept men and women turning their attention towards corruption in government, many more of the "shady" deals and questionable appropriations will also come under scrutiny. It's hard to hide the truth from the masses when it becomes a challenge to uncover it. No longer will there only be a small number of investigative reporters sifting through the details of every nuance of legislative tomfoolery. Armies of disgruntled constituents will be poking around, searching for something, anything to tie the villians to a scandal and unseat them!