Thursday, March 29, 2007

Re: Answering Kaus   [Mark Krikorian]

Sorry I'm late in getting to this, but Andy and Mickey are right — whatever the "triggers" or benchmarks that must be met before the guestworker/amnesty program starts, the very inclusion of amnesty provisions in a bill undermines enforcement. I'd go farther: even McCain's adoption of strictest possible trigger provisions would not "represent a noticeable shift of the immigration debate to the right," as Rich put it, because even the discussion of legalization concedes the argument. Given the uninterrupted track record of every administration and every Congress of abandoning enforcement as soon as politically possible, no serious supporter of enforcement can enter into a debate over the terms of legalization. The time to debate amnesty may well come in the future, after we have changed the political climate and made legal status a widely accepted labor standard, like not hiring children to work in factories. But for now, all bills that contemplate legalization, regardless of the conditions, are exactly the same in the only respect that matters.

03/29 11:52 AMShare