Fear and Loathing on Illegal Immigration

The massive protests since and including last weekend have brought the issue of illegal immigration into sharp focus. The image of thousands of people carrying Mexican flag exposes the attitude of many of these people as one of colonization rather than assimilation. The most important result has been the voices of legislators who oppose any form of amnesty being brought to the forefront of the public debate. With Congressional elections coming this year now is a good time for the politicians to have to face the magnitude of the problem.

Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Arizona, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher R-California Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-Virginia, Rep. Steve King of Iowa and Tom Tancredo of Colorado are speaking emphatically against the Senate bill that despite Arlen Spencer's assurances to the contrary, is an amnesty bill. They stand in stark contrast to Senators Spencer, Graham, McCain and Kennedy who want to wash their hands of an issue they never wanted to tackle in the first place. McCain who comes from Arizona is dumping on the interests of his state's citizens for some misguided perception hat he can buy enough Hispanic votes to overcome his dismal showing in his last presidential bid as he seeks the office in 2008.

Today President Bush is meeting with Mexican President Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss security issues. As has been the case with other such gatherings they have traded assurances of cooperation with little evidence that anything will change. The fundamentals of the crisis are not hard to discern, but difficult for politicians to address. On our side are the courts who have forced states to educate all children regardless of their parent's immigration status because of our 14th amendment that automatically grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States. Then heap on this the willingness of local governments to extend welfare without verification of citizenship, and basically free healthcare at our emergency rooms. On the Mexican side is a socialist government that has used its oil resources to buy votes rather than infrastructure and economic development incentives. The result is the country's economy cannot sustain itself without the billions of dollars sent to relatives by both legal and illegal immigrants. This has fostered a situation where so many Mexicans are here that the fringe elements calling for the return of the Southwest to Mexico are anticipating success. politicians always looking to the easy way to reelection are loath to restrict any largess that people now enjoy for fear of a backlash as the French Government is experiencing now.

Politicians are not as they flatter themselves to be, leaders. They are the slaves of the mob. Their constant fear and goal is how to win the next election. Popular sentiment must be loud and clear for them to abandon they tried and true way of never doing anything substantial. The only way they will be enthusiastic about passing any piece of legislation is if they get to throw lots of money around with their name attached to it, or if there is a credible threat to their reelection if they are on the wrong side of an issue. Take the Dubai Port Deal as an example. Whether or not you think the outcome was good or bad the fact is that no one in congress cared a whit about the deal until the general public caused an uproar. The politicians fear of voter wrath explains the strange bedfellows that joined forces to kill the deal.

The demonstrations with the Mexican flags has done for the illegal immigration issue what talk radio did for the Dubai Ports. If the intensity of the public can be sustained congress may drop the amnesty issue and at least deal with border security.