Thread: Illogical Immigration

Illogical Immigration
Victor Davis Hanson
August 5, 2010 12:00 A.M

Once a law stops being considered quite a law, all sorts of even stranger paradoxes follow.


Some 11 million to 15 million illegal aliens are now residing in America, most after crossing into America unlawfully. Once a federal law is arbitrarily not enforced, all sorts of bizarre paradoxes arise from that original contradiction. As proof, examine the following illogical policies and contradictions involving illegal immigration.

Take profiling — the controversial questioning of those who appear likely to be illegal aliens. Apparently, American border guards have developed criteria for profiling those deemed likely to be unlawful aliens. Otherwise, how would they have arrested and deported hundreds of thousands in 2009?

Yet apparently, at some arbitrary point distant from the border, those who cross illegally are not supposed to be asked about their immigration status. Okay, but exactly why did procedures so radically change at, say, five, ten, 20, 100, or however many miles it is from the border? A border patrolman often profiles, but a nearby highway patrolman cannot?

The federal government is suing Arizona for the state’s efforts to enforce federal immigration law. The lawsuit alleges that Arizona is too zealous both in enforcing immigration law and in encroaching on federal jurisdiction.

But wait — for years, several American cities have declared themselves sanctuary cities. City officials have even bragged that they would not allow their municipalities to enforce federal immigration statutes. So why does Washington sue a state that seeks to enhance federal immigration laws and yet ignore cities that blatantly try to erode them?

Something is going very wrong in Mexico to prompt more than half a million of its citizens to cross the border illegally each year. Impoverished Mexican nationals variously cite poor economic conditions back home, government corruption, a lack of social services, and racism. In other words, it is not just the desirability of America but also the perceived undesirability of Mexico that explains one of largest mass exoduses in modern history.

But why, then, would Mexican president Felipe Calderón, whose country’s conditions are forcing out its own citizens, criticize the United States, which is receiving so many of them? And why, for that matter, would many of those illegal immigrants identify, if only symbolically, with the country that made them leave, whether by waving its flag or criticizing the attitudes of the Americans who took them in?

And how does Mexico treat the hundreds of thousands of aliens who seek to illegally cross its own southern border with Central America each year? Does Mexico believe in sovereign borders to its south but not to its north?

Is Mexico more humane or less humane to illegal aliens than the country it so often faults? Why, exactly, does Mexico believe that nearly a million of its own nationals annually have claims on American residency, when Chinese, Indian, European, and African would-be immigrants are deemed not to? Is the reason proximity? Past history?

Proponents of open borders have organized May Day rallies, staged boycotts of Arizona, sued in federal and state courts, and sought to portray those who want to enforce existing federal immigration law as racially insensitive. But about 70 percent of Americans support securing our borders, and support the Arizona law in particular. Are a clear majority of Americans racist, brainwashed, or deluded in believing that their laws should be enforced? And if so, why would immigrants wish to join them?

It is considered liberal to support open borders and reactionary to want to close them. But illegal immigration drives down the hourly wages of the working American poor. Tens of thousands of impoverished people abroad, from Africa to Asia, wait patiently to enter America legally, while hundreds of thousands from Latin America do not. How liberal can all that be?

America extends housing, food, and education subsidies to illegal aliens in need. But Mexico receives more than $20 billion in American remittances a year — its second-highest source of foreign exchange, and almost all of it from its own nationals living in the United States. Are Americans then subsidizing the Mexican government by extending social services to aliens, freeing up cash for them to send back home?

These baffling questions are rarely posed, never addressed, and often considered politically incorrect. But they will only be asked more frequently in the months ahead.

You see, once a law stops being considered quite a law, all sorts of even stranger paradoxes follow.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/ ... son?page=1

Take profiling — the controversial questioning of those who appear likely to be illegal aliens. Apparently, American border guards have developed criteria for profiling those deemed likely to be unlawful aliens. Otherwise, how would they have arrested and deported hundreds of thousands in 2009?

They now have Border Wars on National Geographic. And tonight they showed crossing the border at Nogales. On foot and in vehicles. You can not check every person and every inch of a vehicle,so they have a practice or system to follow which gives them clues as to which people and/or vehicle to be watching for crossing this border area. The term itself is "profiling". Just as the FBI does to catch criminals. Certain standards,conditions,appearance,habits,dress,behav ior,and so on and on. It is a way to get a job accomplished and get results as well as being efficient.

Pat, fantastic find on this article. Wow!!! So true and so ridiculous at the same time.....

The good part about this economic downturn for America, is that it seems to be having the effect of waking up Americans to what is happening inside our nation, the corruption, the waste, the blatant disregard of the will of the people by the political elites, and illegal immigration. The secondary effect has been the slow, but steady trickle of illegal aliens back into Mexico and other Latin nations south of us. Here where I live, word from my manager, many people are going back to Mexico.....

So for those of us who prayed for an answer to our political troubles that have resulted in where we are, and our terrible problem of illegal immigration, remember, when prayer is answered, it can take a strange turn, but the end result is the best.

Originally Posted by AmericanElizabeth

So for those of us who prayed for an answer to our political troubles that have resulted in where we are, and our terrible problem of illegal immigration, remember, when prayer is answered, it can take a strange turn, but the end result is the best.

Glad you liked it. Good point you made above too. This proves the point too that if the jobs dried up, they'd self deport. If the laws were enforced, and even stengthened a bit by making e-verify mandatory, it would have a similar effect.

BTW, Victor Davis Hanson is the one who wrote the book "Mexifornia." Good book!

But wait — for years, several American cities have declared themselves sanctuary cities. City officials have even bragged that they would not allow their municipalities to enforce federal immigration statutes. So why does Washington sue a state that seeks to enhance federal immigration laws and yet ignore cities that blatantly try to erode them?
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This is exactly the question I would like a logical answer for. How is it that the federal government can get away with doing this?

pat, I know that when people pray and truly believe, the answers come, and it is not always in the way they expected, but it does happen. We all might have to struggle for a while, and our societry may even have some rebuilding and changing, but I do think it all if going to be for the better, we'll all come out a stronger nation, both physically, and financially.

The same goes for all of this political upheaval we have been seeing lately, it too is revolutionary in it's own way, and the changes and outcomes will be great.

EXCELLENT article!

People can throw the race card and insults all they like,
we have facts and straight forward questions like these in the article while illegal supporters have no moral ground to stand on.