Guess Who...

No matter how much the world changes, there are some things that never seem to change at all. The immigration issue is not a new one, but it's become a hot topic over the last few years, as some try to paint it as a national security issue. Today I came across a quote from a former president. Can you guess who said the following:

"It makes one wonder about the illegal-alien fuss. Are great numbers of our unemployed really victims of the illegal-alien invasion or are those illegal tourists actually doing work our own people won't do? One thing is certain in this hungry world: no regulation or law should be allowed if it results in crops rotting in the fields for lack of harvesters."
No, it wasn't John F. Kennedy, or Jimmy Carter. It wasn't Bill Clinton, either. It was Ronald Reagan. It's amazing how much more liberal guys like Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush sound now than they did 20 years ago. It points to how far the conversation has shifted in recent years.

As Fareed Zakaria points out in this week's Newsweek, current facts confirm Reagan's view: "The six states that get the largest inflow of illegal immigrants -- New York, California, Illinois, Texas, Florida, and Arizona -- have unusually low unemployment rates." Four of those six states have unemployment rates below the national average of 4.5%.

There is also strong research showing that American wages are not being suppressed by the illegals in the workforce, and that they complement the native Americans by doing the jobs that native Americans will not. Furthermore, without the 12 million immigrants contributing to our workforce, our economy could not have maintained the growth we've seen over the last several years. Think about it this way: If we were to force all 12 million illegal immigrants to leave our country immediately, how would their work get done? Companies are already struggling to find suitable candidates for vacant jobs. Imagine if there were suddenly millions more vacancies in the workplace. Our economy would surely take a large step backward. You'd think Republicans would understand this, but now there are grumblings coming from big businesses, voicing concern over conservatives' attempts to crack down on the illegal immigrants in the workplace. Will they listen?

My fear is that illegal immigration is being used as a pseudo-national security issue. Republicans want to appear tough in issues dealing with National Security, and they think that they can fool the average American into thinking it's a national security issue, just like they fooled 70% of Americans into thinking Saddam Hussein was involved in planning the 9/11 events. (For those of you unwilling to face the truth, various members of the administration have admitted that there was no connection, so please stop trying to make an argument that even the Bush administration is unwilling to make.) I call the illegal immigration issue a "pseudo-national security" issue, because the two have little or no connection. As the argument goes, if we aren't protecting our borders, terrorists can get in. However, none of the 19 men who carried out the 9/11 attacks entered our country illegally. Why would terrorists go to Mexico, and attempt to cross the desert into the U.S. illegally, when they don't have to. As the 9/11 terrorists proved, it's so much easier just to get a student visa, and come to the U.S. legally, without taking the risk of exposing their plan by getting caught sneaking across the border.

Let me draw an analogy: A person driving down the highway with a trunk filled with marijuana knows better than to drive 20 mph over the speed limit. He would know that he doesn't want to draw any extra attention to himself. He would want to portray himself as an honest, law-abiding citizen, in the hopes that he never has to answer any questions. Similarly, terrorists know that their chances for success are greatest if they mind their own business, following all of the laws until the appointed time has come. If protecting our border is so critical to our national security, whey aren't we talking about a similar wall along the Canadian border? It isn't terrorists that we intend to keep out of the country with the wall; it's Mexicans.