The Immigration Debate Improves, But Closed-Border Fairy Tales Persist
Byron York quotes a conversation on immigration between John McCain and a college student named David—a conversation that gets to the heart of what promises to be an interesting immigration debate within the Republican Party over the next few months:
“I’m just curious as to how any politician in America can support any sort of reward for illegal immigrants other than straight deportation,” David said, “considering the fact that there are legal immigrants out there who have waited years and years just to obtain green cards…They’ve waited patiently in line only to see illegal immigrants come and then basically get rewarded for not obeying the law.”
“Your position is correct,” McCain said. “But the reason why most Americans want border security is that they want to cut off the flow of people coming to this country illegally, and then address the issue of the need for a temporary worker program.”
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McCain continued: “Now, on the disposition of people who have come here illegally. Anyone who has come here recently, within X number of years, I agree with you. What about the 80 year-old grandmother who has been here literally all her life, whose son or grandson is fighting in Iraq? I’m not interested in calling them up and telling them we’re deporting their grandmother. She can pass the naturalization, she can take the test, she can do all the things necessary to become a good citizen.”
“And the other thing is, the reason why I mentioned that, is you’ll have to explain to me how you round up 12 million people. There’s not 12 million pairs of handcuffs in America. So we’ve got to secure the borders to stop the flow of people coming into this country illegally, and then devise a temporary worker program that works so that people come to work and then go back to the country they came from. If they want to become citizens, they go through the normal application process for a green card, etc., but that’s separate from a temporary worker program. And then you’re going to have to address the issue of the 12 million people who are here illegally…”
As he finished, McCain invited David to ask a follow-up question. “I agree that it’s impossible to round up 12 million immigrants and that the logistics of dealing with all that is virtually impossible,” David said. “The issue with the grandmother is just that it’s still pushing the philosophy that if you break the law, well, [that’s OK]. My family emigrated here and they had to wait in line…So I just don’t see it — ”
“I understand that,” McCain said. “You don’t have to worry about additional people coming, if you secure the borders. You see my point? You cut off the flow. There’s no job for them cause you set up a temporary worker program. You seal the borders so they can’t get in. Then those people can be judged as I said before.”
“I think our different thesis here is you believe they’ll keep coming illegally. I think our obligation is to stop it, because you’re never going to address the issue as long as people keep coming here illegally. You see my point?”
No, David said. “I’m not worried people in the future, because I believe that we can seal the border. I’m worried about people who have broken the law. I want to see them punished.”
“As I said, they cannot be rewarded for breaking the law,” McCain answered. “But if you’re prepared to send an 80 year-old grandmother who’s been here 70 years back to some country, then frankly you’re not quite as compassionate as maybe I am. I want to stop the flow of illegals into this country, but you have to look at the additional situations, in my view.”
It’s a good conversation, and that’s as deep as it’s likely to get in the upcoming primary season. I think that David is naive in thinking that the borders will be sealed anytime soon. Our open-borders policy did not come about by accident. Our borders have been open—and remain open—because some enormous businesses find it to be very profitable.
My question for McCain is: Which of your big campaign donors are you prepared to slap with enormous fines for profiting from large numbers of illegal immigrants? The immigration debate is warped because it focuses on the immigrants. The immigrants, as the open-borders lobby loves to point out, are just poor people hoping for better lives. Were I in their situation, I would probably do the same.
The people to punish are the employers. They’re luring in the illegal immigrants. They know full well which of their employees are in this country legally. And I think that their political clout ensures that the immigration laws go unenforced. So until a presidential candidate state clearly that he is prepared to tighten and enforce the laws against those employers, this talk of closing the border is just a fairy tale.