Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Pitch to Conservatives   [Kate O'Beirne]

At a couple of meetings with conservatives today, Tony Snow and Secretary Chertoff defended the immigration bill. General points included a frustration with critics "who haven't read the bill" and a caution that criticizing President Bush on the issue is not constructive. Secretary Chertoff argues that the bill is essentially conservative if you don't take into account the amnesty (my word) in Title VI. The point here is that the beefed up enforcement and the promised eventual end of current chain migration system is a worthy trade for the mass legalization. He also made the case that the bill enhances national security because he can't be chasing nannies and dishwashers and terrorists at the same time - though it seems they have been doing precious little of the former. Why not give "enforcement only" about five years to work, given the past 21 years of lax enforcement? Because (six years after 9/11?) we dare not wait five years to be able to identify everyone in the country. Based on the reports I got, some criticisms of the bill are clearly not getting through. For example, Secretary Chertoff stated that illegal aliens are currently helping to keep the Social Security system afloat, apparently unaware of the big net costs for this population. Mr. Secretary, meet Robert Rector.

05/23 04:57 PMShare