Thread: George Will: Illegal Immigration Fix Urgently Needed

Illegal immigration fix urgently needed:

Last Updated: March 04. 2011 1:00AM

George Will

During his first 18 years in Congress, Lamar Smith's office faced a parking lot. Now, in his 13th term, he looks out upon the Capitol dome. Seniority confers perquisites.

Today he chairs the House Judiciary Committee that has custody of the immigration issue.

His Texas district has meandered north from when he was first elected and now is 150 miles from the border.

But Smith still looks south, toward the flow of illegal immigration, which he considers a uniquely comprehensive problem, affecting schools, health care, employment and the culture.

America, he says, has the world's "most generous legal immigration policies. We admit as many legal immigrants as the rest of the world combined."

Regarding illegal immigration, however, he proposes a program of "attrition through enforcement." Workplace enforcement, that is.

He says such enforcement has declined 70 percent in the past two years, and fines levied on employers of illegal immigrants are treated by businesses as a bearable cost of doing business.

We are, Smith notes with quiet asperity, not finishing the fence, and the 1,200 National Guard troops President Obama sent to the border will leave one day. Although half a million people are caught trying to enter the country illegally each year, Border Patrol agents tell Smith that two to four get in for every one apprehended.

He thinks some physical barrier is necessary — but no barrier will be sufficient. We must "reduce the attraction of the job magnet" so fewer illegal immigrants will come here and more will go home.

Some people say such policies will put Hispanic votes beyond the reach of Republicans. Smith serenely disagrees.

He believes, on the basis of quotes he is pleased to share, that many on the left see amnesty for illegal immigrants as a way to build a permanent Democratic majority. He, however, is confident that Republicans can compete for Hispanic votes by insisting that everyone "play by the rules."

Notice, he says, that in 2010 the three Hispanics elected in statewide races — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval — were all Republicans. In Texas, two new Hispanics were elected to Congress, Quico Canseco and Bill Flores, both Republicans. Like the other three freshman Hispanics in the House (Idaho's Raul Labrador, Washington's Jaime Herrera Beutler and Florida's David Rivera, all Republicans), Canseco and Flores stress border security.

He believes the practice of birthright citizenship rests on a misconstruing of the 14th Amendment. The Supreme Court, he says, has never addressed the "precise question" of the meaning of this: "All persons born ... in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

He favors ending birthright citizenship as currently administered and thinks it is possible to "write a statute to get five votes" on the court. If he does write one, this soft-spoken man will be carrying a big stick of legislative dynamite.

George Will writes for the Washington Post. His column is distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group. E-mail comments to letters@detnews.com.

http://detnews.com/article/20110304/OPI ... z1IacqinrY

" If he does write one, this soft-spoken man will be carrying a big stick of legislative dynamite."

Thats what it is going to take too. "a big stick of legislative dynamite."
Day after day after day! And one right after another more powerful than
the previous!

I'll believe it when I see it. Republican or Democrat..they're not to be trusted. The proof is in the pudding....

At this time all I'm seeing is lip service

Get it done , If they wait to much longer hispanics will have far to much power

We have one more chance to get it right in 2012, if we blow that one , its over
period

I agree.

Something really does need to be done "urgently" to get a grip on illegal immigration, which is sending this Country to rock bottom more and more daily.