Panelist debate immigration policy at UNT

By PATRICK McGEEpmcgee@star-telegram.co


Mark Krikorian speaks at a discussion on U.S. immigration policy Thursday with panelists Lee Hamilton, left, Benjamin Johnson and Rodolfo Rosales. The panel was the highlight of the Perspectives in Immigration conference at the University of North Texas. S-T/LAURIE L. WARD


DENTON — It wasn’t an evenly weighted debate Thursday night. Three of the four members of the panel discussing U.S. immigration policy believed that immigrants mostly benefit the nation.

But the lone advocate for tighter immigration controls, Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies, held his own.

Krikorian said the America of 2009 is a highly advanced society that does not need immigrants as badly as did the America of 100 years ago.

"Immigration policy has to be based on what’s good for your grandchildren, not what was good for your grandparents," Krikorian said.

It is wrongheaded "social engineering" for the government to try to funnel people into the country instead of just keeping most of them out, he said.

To which Lee Hamilton, president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, replied: "Well Mark, it’s social engineering to exclude them."

"We need talented people coming into this country to help us grow and develop," said Hamilton, a former Democratic U.S. representative and co-chairman of the 9-11 Commission.

He noted that on his Saturday morning errands, he sees only foreigners running the businesses he visits.

The panel was the highlight of the Perspectives in Immigration conference at the University of North Texas.

The other two panelists also challenged Krikorian.

"To spend the dollars we spend chasing bus boys around the desert is just ridiculous to me," said Benjamin Johnson, executive director of the American Immigration Law Foundation.

If Americans want better working conditions, Johnson said, they should not blame immigrants and send federal agents to raid job sites, but instead send in federal work-safety inspectors.

Rudolfo Rosales, associate political science professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, touched on social-justice issues but pointed to market forces as his main argument.

"The bottom line is, we can’t exist without each other," Rosales said.

Immigration policy has to be based on what's good for your grandchildren, not what is good for your grandparents.

Mark Krikorian,
executive director, Center for Immigration Studies

To spend the dollars we spend chasing bus boys around the desert is just ridiculous to me."

Benjamin Johnson,
executive director, American Immigration Law Foundation

PATRICK McGEE, 817-390-7638

http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1255875.html