WASHINGTON — This week in a speech to border and customs agents
in Tucson, Arizona, President George W. Bush fastened the nation’s
attention on our immigration imbroglio. That should come as no
surprise. Many Americans are very concerned about immigration
policy. Nation of immigrants that we are, our appraisal of the
problem has changed — once again.
During periods of the 19th century the nation was ambivalent
about immigration. A whole political party, the Know-Nothings, was
against it in the 1850s. Toward the end of the century, when large
groups of Irish and Italians were swarming in, the nation’s older
immigrants were against it. Yet as the 20th century took on years
and the economy became more industrialized and prosperous Americans
viewed immigration more benignly. A majority came to a positive
acceptance of it.
That is not true today. Certainly it is not true with regard to
illegal immigration. For the first time since the Gallup Poll
began, a majority of Americans think immigration is bad rather than
good. Thus politicians of all persuasions are promising action. The
Bush policy is to address border security and illegal immigration.
The President has reversed his emphasis. Last time around he
suggested addressing illegal immigration first with a guest-worker
program, and tough enforcement of border control second. Those in
favor of tough enforcement of border control and of action against
illegal immigration think the President is not being tough enough,
and these “restrictions” are drawn from both ends of the political
spectrum.
Both sides in this debate fail to note the obvious. There is a
market for immigrants in this country. The President is
more cognizant of this than those who would restrict immigration,
but turn to consider the market for a minute: 1) producers need
immigrants; 2) immigrants are coming here because there is work
that enriches them. This market has been helpful to the economy. It
is growing robustly and without one of the feared downsides of
immigration or even illegal immigration, unemployment. We are
almost at full employment, and with two to three times as many
illegal immigrants in the country as in the mid-1980s, when Senator
Alan Simpson last addressed the immigration issue, that is pretty
much proof that the economy can accept immigration and prosper.
The real problem is border security and an orderly society. We
need to know who is entering the country, and that they abide by
the laws. So Congress is preparing a series of get tough measures.
The toughest of which is probably that envisaged by Tom Tancredo of
Colorado and J. D. Hayworth of Arizona. Their legislation would
deputize state and local police to arrest the millions of illegal
immigrants (possibly 12 million) and deport them. Some argue we
should somehow drop the arrested immigrants into the interior of
their countries. How would this be done, by a gigantic parachute
drop?
Any prudent law has to be based on what James Madison in The
Federalist Papers called the “genius” of the people. The
American people are by nature generous, optimistic, and tolerant.
It is apparent, at least to me, that as we began arresting illegal
immigrants the process would soon come to a sorry end. Wretched
immigrants would be held up by many Americans now favoring the
tough approach as the victims of unjust law enforcers. Civil
libertarians would step in. The approach would be brought to ruin,
and the “hate-America” crowd would have more spurious evidence that
this is a racist and intolerant country. There is a better
approach.
We have the capacity to close off the border, and we should. We
also have the capacity to encourage many of the illegal immigrants
to enroll in a program aimed at amnesty, but one that does not make
chumps of legal immigrants who have played by the rules. The
legislation of the 1980s ended in amnesty and well over half the
illegals became law-abiding citizens. The burden on the President
and Congress is to close off the border and get the present
immigrants to enter amnesty programs.
This is not an easy thing to accomplish but it is certainly more
practical and feasible than the “tough” approaches now being
bandied about. The market for immigrants is here and will not
evaporate. The Know-Nothings faded away but the bad repute they
settled on the country endured — unfairly, but it endured.
