The American Spectator

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br> Re: W. James Antle III's Immigration Word Games : /p>

Hooray to you, Mr. Antle, in calling for what we still have not had; i.e., a real and highly specific debate, as opposed to breathtaking demagoguery and disingenuousness.

If I've written once I've written dozens of times, both to the White House and to proponents of greatly increased immigration (real or via "guest workers") in the Congress, simply asking that they lay out their case and support it with indisputable facts about the present, as well as reasonable assumptions about the future implications if they get what they want.

What are their economic arguments? (And no, "filling jobs that Americans won't do" is not an argument.) What specifically are the numbers behind the worker shortage? Show me how millions of low-skill but high social service-consuming workers and their families are a net positive for our economy? What will be the economic effect on us of having all those millions here in the event of a severe recession with massive job loss? If Social Security and Medicare are headed for bankruptcy now, will those programs not be headed for total breakdown with millions more on the rolls, many of whom would have contributed little to the so-called 'trust funds'?" Will America really be brought to its economic knees if lettuce becomes scarce or if the price of a head goes up 100%; if the price of a hotel room goes up 20%; and if the suburban lords of all the McMansions have to shell out for a riding mower and cut their own lawns?

What are their social arguments? How would allowing in tens or even scores more millions of poor, uneducated, unassimilating people from Third World countries make a positive contribution to our already frayed social fabric?

What are their cultural arguments? (And no, "America has always been a land of immigrants" is not an argument.) If the culture of this country is (still) largely Western European by tradition, and if a majority would like to see it stay that way, how to square that with a policy which would seem to suggest that in a couple of decades, if not sooner, there will be two Americas: one still largely rooted in the Western European tradition, and the other distinctly Hispanic and Latino?

What are the political arguments? Or more precisely, what are the political rationales? Does either side in this debate have the honesty to come right out and say that an unspoken part of it is simply a cynical, calculated attempt to pad their party's voter rolls?

As noted, I've already posed these questions, and more, numerous times to the White House. So far, no private response (other than the standard "thank you for contacting us" form reply) nor public response (in that unless I've missed it the president still has not addressed, at least not seriously, any of these questions).

p>Oh well, no harm in trying again, and so I'm copying the White House on this letter. I'll let you know if I hear anything back. br> -- C. Vail /p>

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