The issue of illegal immigration has troubled this nation for decades. The fact that in open defiance of our immigration laws upward of 11 million foreign nationals reside here with many if not most of the benefits of citizenship, is undeniable evidence that many Americans are ambivalent about the situation while others are complicit in it.
Nothing is more blatantly complicit than “sanctuary cities,” whose official policy is to shield illegal immigrants by not only ignoring their unlawful status but also refusing to assist federal authorities in apprehension and deportation. Imagine if a jurisdiction declared sanctuary for tax evaders, forgers or identity thieves. How long would that be tolerated?
But, by sheltering illegal immigrants from the law, sanctuary cities are doing just that.
In order to live and work in America certain legal documentation is required — definitely a Social Security card and often a driver’s license and proof of insurance.
Can anyone out there present a rational case for why illegal immigration should be tolerated, accommodated or excused? If so, I am certainly willing to reconsider my position on the issue. Seriously, send me the rationale. My email address is listed at the end of this column.
The pro-illegal immigration arguments that I am aware of are heavy on emotion and feather-light on logic.
Perhaps the most prevalent emotional argument is that illegal immigrants are just hardworking people trying to support their families. The fact that they break our laws to be here is somehow excused by their having families that they could not support in their native lands.
Extending this rationalization we could forgive swindlers, burglars and tax cheats who have families to support.
And, if the need to support a family earns one a free pass to America, then we had better be prepared for a tidal wave of immigrants. The world has hundreds of millions of struggling, impoverished families. Having children without clearly having the means to support them is foolish and tragically irresponsible.
Maybe the most asinine pro-immigration argument out there is that we are a nation of immigrants — as if that worn-out cliché somehow justifies illegal immigration.
Are we today a nation of immigrants? If so, wouldn’t that mean that most Americans alive today were born in a country other than America, to parents who were not Americans?
Go back far enough into history and you will find that most every nation on earth could claim to be a nation of immigrants.
At ground-level, illegal immigration is an economic issue. How do millions of illegal immigrants affect wage scales, job availability, crime, public services, public education, housing, etc.?
Apologists for illegal immigration argue that the economy benefits from the millions of illegal immigrant workers here. Well, certainly the recipients of the billions of dollars illegal immigrants send back to their native countries do, and certainly the U.S. employers who can pay lower wages for labor do, but the American citizens who lose their jobs to immigrants don’t.
Those jobs aren’t necessarily ones that Americans refuse to do. Ever wonder who did those jobs before millions of immigrants were allowed into the country? If the United States truly has labor shortages, there is a legal avenue for importing labor.
The proposed DREAM Act, currently being pushed hard by pro-immigration forces, argues that because they have been here most of their lives, certain illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay. Many are established here, some have children born here who, under a post-Civil War relic constitutional amendment, are citizens. It would be inhumane to expel them now.
Too much charity is not a virtue. Without consequences there is no discipline. We tried amnesty back in 1986. It did nothing to stem the inflow of illegal immigration. Those foreigners who snuck in here with their young children knew they were breaking our laws and knew the risks to them and their families.
A nation that does not maintain its borders jeopardizes its integrity as a nation. If any foreigner can reside here indefinitely without being vetted and approved under our immigration laws then what is the value of American citizenship or the rule of law? What prevents hordes of the world’s economic and political refugees from coming here uninvited? How do we screen for criminals, enemy agents and disease carriers?
More important, how do we stabilize our population at sustainable levels? Every vessel has a carrying capacity that, if exceeded, sinks the vessel. The single greatest threat to nearly all life on this planet is excessive human population. All the clever science, green-energy, crop engineering, etc. eventually will be overwhelmed by too many people on a finite planet.
Our quality of life is inevitably affected by resource limits. We ignore this reality at our own peril. When America or any country absorbs — without restriction — the populations of nations that have bred beyond their support capacity, they not only jeopardize themselves, but they also aid and abet irresponsible breeding and the calamities of over-population.
The final redoubt of pro-immigration sympathizers is racism. The reasoning here is that since most illegal immigrants are Hispanic those who oppose illegal immigration must be racists. This calumnious canard has been so overused that it has exhausted its power to shame, embarrass or scare anyone.
But, let’s pretend for a moment that it is true. What would it change? Would all the deleterious consequences of illegal immigration disappear simply because those who opposed it were racists? Would it make illegal immigration any less illegal?
If anyone has better arguments in support of illegal immigration than these, please, send them to me.
— Randy Alcorn is a Santa Barbara political observer. Contact him at randyalcorn@cox.net, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.