Saturday, May 19, 2007

Re: Immigration Question   [Andy McCarthy]

John, I'm not as deeply in the restrictionist side as some — I don't have a problem raising legal immigration levels, especially if more pro-assimilation measures are put in place.  But I think you're primise is flawed.  The choice is not between a bad bill and a different bill; it's between a bad bill and no bill.  I agree with your suggestion that there probably is no better formula that would have had a chance of passing in this Congress.  But, with the rules the way they are in the senate, the no-bill option was an attainable possibility — perhaps it still is, though that now seems more unlikely.

The crisis in immigration is only an enforcement crisis.  It is not a crisis that millions of people who have chosen to live and work here illegally must live "in the shadows."  That is their problem, not ours.  I am not in favor of rounding them all up — those thin resources ought to be dedicated to ousting the illegals who violate our criminal laws.  But I will never understand the urgency to address their status.

05/19 04:36 PMShare