Amnesty stance comes with baggage


Now that Newt Gingrich has become the latest in a series of Republican front- runners, he is getting the kinds of scrutiny and attacks that have done in other frontrunners.

One of the issues that has aroused concern among conservative Republicans is that of amnesty for illegal immigrants, especially after Gingrich said that it would not be "humane" to deport someone who has been living and working here for years.

Let's go back to square one. The purpose of American immigration laws and policies is not to be either humane or inhumane to illegal immigrants. The purpose of immigration laws and policies is to serve the national interest of this country.

There is no inherent right to come live in the United States, nor does the passage of time confer any such right retroactively.

The usually sober and thoughtful Wall Street Journal outdoes Gingrich's claim that it would not be "humane" to deport illegal immigrants who have been living here a long time. A Wall Street Journal editorial says that it would be "psychotic" to do so.

"No one honestly believes the government should or will mount a nationwide manhunt to deport millions of people," according to the Wall Street Journal.

What we have today is virtually the opposite of that. Cities that openly proclaim themselves "sanctuaries" for illegal immigrants put their own policemen under strict orders not to report illegal immigrants to the federal authorities. What many local policies have done has been to virtually put illegal aliens in a witness protection program.

Why do people want to come to America in the first place? Because America offers them something that their native countries do not. This country has a culture that has produced a higher standard of living and a freer life than in many other countries.

When you import people, you import cultures, including those that have been far less successful in providing decent lives and decent livelihoods. The American people have a right to decide whether they want unlimited imports of cultures from other countries.

At one time, immigrants came to America to become Americans. Today, the apostles of multiculturalism have done their best to keep foreigners foreign and feeling aggrieved. Moreover, in an age of terrorism, everyone who comes across the border from Mexico is not Mexican. It is the height of irresponsibility to leave that border open and the people who cross it a protected group.

As for Gingrich, his position on immigration is just one of the items in his "baggage." But what the voters have to overcome is an insistence on a perfect candidate. Ronald Reagan, after all, supported an immigrant amnesty bill, but that did not prevent him from being a great president otherwise. A Republican Congress would be unlikely to make that mistake again, even if a Republican president wanted to.

The big question for 2012 is whether Republicans will win Congress and/or the White House. If Democrats win Congress and the White House in 2012, amnesty is virtually certain, along with other disasters.

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His website is www.tsowell.com.
Caption: THOMAS SOWELL
December 1, 2011

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