Base10 on Immigration
Base10 hasn't written on the immigration issue, but thinks it is time that he did. Reform of the US immigration system is not really a comfortably Liberal-Conservative issue. It involves economics, national security and morality. And there are no easy answers.

What is not helpful in this debate is the radical left wrapping itself up in the Mexican flag. The American people are generous to a fault, but they do not like it when people here illegally demand the privileges of citizenship while still retaining national loyalty abroad. You are welcome to America's benefits, but you have to join our team, as it were. Citizenship is a privilege, not a right.

What is also not helpful is the framing of the argument in terms of being for or against immigration, per se. Being opposed to illegal immigration is not the same thing as being anti-immigrant. Indeed, many people abroad waiting their turn to come here might agree with that.

The last thing that should be avoided in this debate are silly arguments made for the sake of a sound bite. Peter King, a NY House Representative, made himself look like an idiot on the Sunday talk shows. He favors making illegal alien status a felony but as much as admits that it would be impossible to enforce. He suggested instead enforcement against the "big corporations" that benefit from the low wages they pay to illegal workers. Big corporations? Who are you kidding? Who employs illegals anyway? Not Google and General Electric, but rather small construction businesses and the food service industry. I guess Peter King can't rile up as many people when he says he wants to put mom-and-pop run Irish bars out of business for hiring a guy off the boat from Dublin.

All that being said, briefly consider the economic issues. There are, by some estimates, twelve million illegal immigrants in the United States. If we could remove them--which is like saying we could remove the labor and consumption of a state the size of Michigan from US GDP--do you think this would affect the economy in a positive or negative way? This simple question doesn't even consider transaction costs. Are you willing to double your marginal tax rate to begin a Herculean (and probably fruitless) effort to throw twelve million people out of the country? Something must be done with these people and Base10 thinks some type of guest worker system is necessary. But this is not only about economics.

The issue that really seems to fire up both right and left is that of national security. Build a wall between the US and Mexico, that crowd says. We can figure the rest out later. The shrillness and hyperbole of these arguments are astonishing. Terrorists could enter the country. Did you hear that? TERRORISTS! Briefly consider that the border with Mexico could never be properly policed without a radical rethinking all of our security priorities (Mexico, after all, is one of our staunchest allies. Why do we have to have a massive military and/or police presence on the border to protect us?) Consider too the national security costs of alienating (excuse the pun) the Mexican people. Do we want a socialist Mexico propped up by Hugo Chavez's petrodollars? Which is the worse threat, that, or people wanting to work coming over the border? I find it ironic that many of the national security concerns raised by the illegal immigration issue could be solved with the common sense implementation of a national ID card. That idea would be disowned by the wall-off-Mexico crowd in a momentito. But this is not only about national security.

Immigration is at its heart a moral issue. People WANT to come here. No other nation has the kind of immigration flow that we have. There is no country in the world that has more people emigrating from America than immigrating to it. It has been like this throughout most of our history. Why? Because in spite of the anti-American rhetoric spewed up by angry Leftist zealots or Islamic thugs, the US remains a shining beacon to the rest of the world. Come here. You can be free and have a say in your government. You can make a life for yourself and your family. It might be hard for you, but your children and grandchildren will reap the benefits.

That being said, do illegals deserve to go to the head of the line? No, but neither should they be airlifted home en mass. This country's very identity is defined by waves of immigration. Never forget what Emma Lazarus wrote of the Statue of Liberty:

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
with silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Let's not forget what America stands for. Most of us are, after all, the sons of immigrants.
- posted by Base10 @ 9:05 AM