The American Spectator

The Public Policy

(Page 3 of 3)

br> Still illegal, but documented -- the legal legitimation of noncitizens is the goal, as prelude to making national citizenship meaningless for illegal immigrants as well as you and me.

IN THE IMMIGRATION DANCE, HR 4437 stepped badly -- playing into the hands of its enemies and failing to focus on the most practical and most popular element of the issue: border control. Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake has admitted as much in the Washington Post. "It was an ugly bill in most respects, the felony stuff, the wall and no amendments"; and even the wall isn't that ugly.

What is ugly is the missed opportunity to zero in on the heart of the crisis: timing and pacing. The lack of border control is the reason why we have 12 million illegals today -- what lawyers call the proximate cause. The lack of border control is why we will have 12 million more at this rate. Criminalization of resident illegals fails to address the root problem, whereas border control is an irrefutable winner. Neither Cardinal Mahoney nor any other social-justice hero can fight half as hard for the decay of national sovereignty as they can for the decent care of illegal fellow humans already in the United States.

By failing to go straight for border control, alone, in a freestanding bill, the House stepped on its own toes. Since the Senate has done the same, we have one last chance to do immigration reform right -- and to protect the rule of law, the integrity of sovereignty, and the value of American citizenship.

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