Thread: Illegal immigrants are anchored by jobs, not kids

Navarrette a Centrist????

Illegal immigrants are anchored by jobs, not kids

Ruben Navarrette, West Central Tribune
Published Saturday, March 17, 2007

SAN DIEGO — In the feverpitched immigration debate, the extremes have it wrong and the center is the only sensible place to be.

President Bush gets it. While visiting Mexico last week, Bush stressed the need for a “middle ground” solution between unconditional amnesty and what he called the “empty talk” of threatening to deport 12 million people. Earlier on his swing through Latin America, Bush staked out some more middle ground. He asserted his belief that “family values don’t stop at the Rio Grande.” But at the same time, he also felt it necessary while in Guatemala to declare that it is the right of the United States to enforce its immigration laws.

That is precisely the right balance to strike, and the president deserves credit for trying to hold on to the middle in a debate that is too often dominated by the extremes.

I’m a middle-grounder myself, although I spend so much time battling ridiculous and reactionary proposals from the right that I don’t always get around to taking on some of the senseless and self-destructive notions from the left.

Such as the insistence by some that if an illegal immigrant has U.S.-born children to support, this alone should be enough to justify allowing the immigrant to stay in the country. The issue has surfaced because of recent worksite raids in which illegal immigrants have been nabbed and deported, some of them leaving behind U.S.-born children.

It happened in December after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in six states and rounded up nearly 1,300 illegal immigrant workers. Many of those apprehended had children waiting at home, and community activists had to scramble to arrange childcare.

And it happened again earlier this month in New Bedford, Mass., where ICE raided a leather-goods factory that

First, it’s impractical. The numbers are too high. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, there are as many as 3 million U.S.-born children who have at least one parent who is an illegal immigrant. About 10 percent of American families have at least one member who is here illegally. So this “U.S.-born-children-tosupport” exemption could apply to millions of people, watering down the rule of law.

Besides, such a policy would play into the hands of immigration restrictionists who drone on about so-called anchor babies — U.S. children who supposedly keep their illegal immigrant parents anchored in the United States. It’s an over-simplification. There is only one thing that is anchoring illegal immigrants in the United States: jobs.

And finally, allowing people to stay in the United States because they have U.S.-born children to support only confuses the issue of who is actually responsible for the precarious state in which these folks find themselves. The activists like to blame the government and a broken immigration system. Yet the blame lies with the parents. They made at least three mistakes to get to this point: coming to the country illegally, having children while they were in the uncertain situation where they could be apprehended and deported at any time, and allowing this uncertainty to drag on for years by not taking the steps necessary to become legal.

The legalization process is not easy, but no one said it is supposed to be. Perhaps the same can be said for staying in the center of an emotional debate that makes trying to be fair and reasonable nearly impossible.

Ruben Navarrette’s e-mail address is navarrette@wctrib.com.

http://www.wctrib.com/articles/index.cf ... on=Opinion

Can't help but wonder if Ruben's visits to ALIPAC are starting to have the unforseen side effect of logic and sensibility creeping into his brain in regards to illegal immigration. ..................YEAH RIGHT.

Ruben is trying hard to fit somewhere into a fractured amnesty movement.
Some are aligning with the NAACP, some are joining the anti war movement and some like Mr Navarrette have changed their tune from demanding amnesty to pleading for the 'middle ground'.

This is just another in a long list of why we fight.
It's not over until complete and unconditional surrender.
If after 40 years of getting everything they asked for, we can finally see some affects of our hard work, don't let up till we win.

How amazing - he seems to be admitting that an 'immigrant' might have made a mistake or two.

BetsyRoss wrote:

How amazing - he seems to be admitting that an 'immigrant' might have made a mistake or two.

3 mistakes,

Yet the blame lies with the parents. They made at least three mistakes to get to this point: coming to the country illegally, having children while they were in the uncertain situation where they could be apprehended and deported at any time, and allowing this uncertainty to drag on for years by not taking the steps necessary to become legal.

and not just mistakes, "intentional" mistakes. if there is such a thing.
If it`s intentional it`s no mistake.

Whether they`re anchored by babies or jobs, the invasion has to stop before anything else will work.

I don't think ALIPAC had much to do with Ruben's logic at all.

Although I don't agree with his sarcastic slanted articles, he must have recognized at some point that illegal immigrants are only hurting themselves by coming here and expecting to cheat their way into American society. That is an extremely foolish and dangerous assumption of these people who pay for their misconduct with consequences they legally deserve and cannot afford.

What he is also doing is making a presupposition that securing the border , employer enforcement and no amnesty is an extreme position. Framing the argument. Who isn't for a center poston? No one wants to be "extreme". I don't accept the premise at all and of course he is just a racist hack doing what racist hacks always do. Unfortunately he has help from quite a few in the MSM. The day protecting American sovereignty, American borders and The American people become "extreme" is the day we have in fact lost our country.

and not just mistakes, "intentional" mistakes. if there is such a thing. If it`s intentional it`s no mistake.

Great point. He does what many of the OBL supporters in the MSM do assume/push they are either stupid or completely ignorant, "I know not what I do".

Anchor Babies are exploited children. These parents hold them up a shields when they get arrested for deportation.

Dixie