Thursday, August 03, 2006

An Evening of Wonkery   [John Derbyshire]

Spent a happy evening yesterday with a bunch of heavyweight immigration wonks, some old aquaintances & some new ones.  (Among the new ones, Bruce DeCell of 9/11 Families for a Secure America, an impressive instance of a citizen turning anger and bitterness to socially useful purpose.) 

Some random comments:

—-Of GOP '08 serious prospects, only George Allen looks as if he understands the immigration issue.  (Unless you thinkNewt Gingrich is a serious prospect.)

—-Quote on GWB:  "He loves his servants.  He's a guy with a ranch and lots of Mexican help.  Vicente Fox is a guy with a ranch and lots of Mexican help.  Of course they got on well."

—-Quote *from* GWB (reportedly):  "I spent a lot of time with my baseball team.  I understand immigration."  (Sounds authentic GWB to me.)

—-Quote from a guy who's been toiling in the immigration-enforcement vineyard for a decade or so:  "This administration will never do anything to stop illegal immigration, except grudgingly and half-heartedly.  They just don't believe in it.  If you squeeze 'em real hard, they'll make a gesture.  That's it.  They just don't believe in it.  Their real effort, their real concentration, is always on finding ways to do nothing about immigration."

—-Grass roots immigration-enforcement groups:  They are babes in the wood.  The La Raza types run rings round them.  They easily fall into factional squabbling.  They attract kooky fringe types, and don't know how to get rid of them.  The enemy has all the heavy artillery:  AILA, Republican elites, pretty much the entire Democratic Party (though there were some kind words for James Webb), all the media, the universities, etc.

—-The Mexican drug cartels have staked out lookout posts on high ground up to 200 miles into U.S. territory.  There are armed foreign nationals on U.S. soil, protecting their drug shipment routes.  Presented with photographic evidence of this Karl Rove pooh-poohed it. 

—-Much praise for the "two Kings," i.e. this one   and this one.

08/03 02:21 PMShare