What the Senators Don’t Get About Immigration
I was reading Hugh Hewitt and Mark Steyn discuss the late stage immigration bill that was pulled from Senate debate yesterday.
Hugh Hewitt
Mark Steyn: No, it doesn’t. I mean, the interesting thing about immigration, I think, is that in some ways, this is not seen by the Republican base, and indeed, large numbers of the Democratic Party, too, as primarily an immigration issue. It’s seen as a criminal issue, it’s seen as an assault on sovereignty. And I think that’s what the Republicans don’t get, that they’re looking at it, people like Trent Lott look at it as a way of making a technical adjustment to an existing situation. And I think, for example, Harry Reid’s reference to 12 million undocumented Americans, as he put it, that’s a term I’ve been using as a joke for five years, ever since people started introducing this phrase of undocumented workers. I’ve been making jokes about fine, upstanding members of the undocumented American community. It’s an absurd proposition. (emphasis mine)
Source: Hugh Hewitt
This discussion took place before the hook came out to snag the bill.
In this segment of the transcript, Mark Steyn points out one of the key issues that many politicians (i.e., most of the “grand bargainers”) don’t get about the discussion about immigration.
It’s about respecting our law. It’s not about Mexicans, it’s not about low-paying jobs, it’s not about stifling the desire of people who want to share in our prosperity. I’d bet the vast majority of law-abiding U.S. citizens don’t care about those features at all.
What we care about are two things, respect for the U.S. as a country, and respect for and compliance with our laws.
Respect for our country includes acknowledging that it is our country, not everyone’s. We have borders, entry points and rules about getting in - they need to be enforced and respected. This topic ranges from the poor immigrant who only wants to come here and make more money (but can’t or won’t follow the rules to do so), to the MS 13 gang member or Islamo-fascist terrorist intent on taking from us what is rightfully ours - our life, liberty or our property.
Respect for and compliance with our laws is the other piece that the lazy politicians don’t get. I’ll use an example of the kind of thing that demonstrates my point:
From the Academy of Achievement web site:
The new Mayor [Giuliani] adopted the controversial “Broken Windows” theory of crime prevention, in which the smaller signs of disorder — such as graffiti and vandalism — are suppressed, to alter the perception that a neighborhood is out of control. Computer mapping enabled the New York Police Department to identify precise locations with the highest incidence of violent crime and direct their resources accordingly. In only two years, serious crime had been reduced by more than one-third and murder by almost half.
People can argue all they want about whether it really was the “Broken Windows” approach that worked. The point is, the other approach - follow whatever laws you want, don’t follow those you object to, and ignore the consequences of these decisions - is destined for disaster, as we can see in the immigration debate.
Now, just what is it all these people are coming to? Is it the playground where they can have lots of candy, toys and rides? Or is it a country that has laws, individual freedom, and the right to own private property - all protected by a government that serves the people, not rules over people autocratically.
Without secure borders, we have no sovereignty. Without sovereignty, we have no laws. With no laws, we have no country.
