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Jewish World Review Oct. 14, 2005 / 11 Tishrei, 5766 The national silence on immigration By Diana West
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
There are two things every American should know about Virginia's
governor's race: 1) It's the first sizable political contest to
turn, largely, on the issue of illegal immigration. 2) As such, it
spotlights the pathetic state of political discourse on the subject.
Just to be clear, there's nothing pathetic about the position of
Republican nominee Jerry W. Kilgore. He's the guy I like. I like him
simply because he says he wants to enforce the law — for example,
the law prohibiting illegal aliens and other non-citizens from
voting. He would even like to see the law tightened to become more
easily enforceable. I also like him because he says he doesn't want
to break the law — such as laws prohibiting welfare and other
benefits from being distributed to illegal aliens.
But this is precisely where the debate becomes pathetic: In the
United States, in the year 2005, just trying to help carry out
immigration laws already on the books, and just trying not to break
them, marks one as a veritable subversive with a program, as The
Washington Post hysterically put it, "tinged with nativism and
opportunism." In such a climate, Kilgore's support for new
legislation to make existing laws more enforceable — for example,
legislation that would enable police to detain illegal immigrants
arrested for violent offenses and turn them over to federal
immigration officials — is regarded as rock-the-boat radical. This
is not only pathetic, but also depressing: A commitment to keep the
government functioning according to the laws that make it sovereign
should not be political TNT.
But it is. "Don't ask, don't tell" is as good as it gets when it
comes to government strategy — federal, state and local — on
policing illegal immigrants. By contrast, the prospect of enforcing
the law sounds downright revolutionary. That's because the long
political silence on immigration — aside from the legislative
efforts of the indomitable Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. — hasn't just
been deafening. It's been demoralizing. Poll after poll indicates a
profound uneasiness in the gut of the American public with the
culturally transforming pace of immigration, both legal and illegal.
But our politicians, particularly our president, have turned their
backs on the issue, hoping the taboo topic goes away, sucked deep
into the maw of the cheap labor market.
Far from going away, however, the issue has come closer to home.
Take what are known as "day laborers" — those bands of job-seeking
men, often illegal, who, in pursuit of work, have made a stereotype
for themselves as small-time sexual harassers and big-time public
urinators. This phenomenon has reached a breakpoint in towns,
neighborhoods and Home Depot parking lots across the country. With
the failure of the federal government to enforce the nation's
immigration laws, some communities are seeking relief by proposing
to administer, courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer, day-labor
recruitment centers where the men and their day-employers can mix
and match. But not only do such sites enable illegals to participate
in American life, they encourage American citizens to break the law.
Which is not a Rockwellian scene any way you paint it.
After the northern Virginia town of Herndon decided to open such a
site, Kilgore voiced his opposition. "I just don't think we should
be using taxpayer dollars to fund illegal behavior, to promote
illegal behavior," the former Virginia attorney general told
MSNBC.com. "I think it says to those illegally in this country and
to those wanting to come illegally, 'We'll make a place for you if
you violate our rules.'"
Timothy M. Kaine, Kilgore's Democratic opponent, calls this approach
"mean-spirited"; Kaine's solution, meanwhile, is both to defer to
local officials and rely on federal enforcement — which is no
solution at all. An independent candidate, H. Russell Potts Jr.,
calls Kilgore's law-and-order position "the worst form of
demagoguery." A Kaine spokesman called it "grandstanding." Kilgore
had succumbed to "the temptation to fan the flames with a naked
appeal for votes," according to The Washington Post, itself
succumbing to the temptation to mix metaphors. The newspaper also
dubbed the Kilgore plan to follow the law "populist nonsense" and "a
wedge issue."
Sounds as if Kilgore is on to something. Really vital concerns are
always "wedge" issues in that they divide the electorate into
clear-cut camps from which leaders emerge to govern. That said, this
is one weird wedge. Whoever would have imagined that a campaign to
enforce the nation's laws would be considered "mean-spirited"
"demagoguery" and "populist nonsense"?
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JWR contributor Diana West is a columnist and editorial writer for the Washington Times. Comment by clicking here. © 2005, Diana West |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
