“We essentially have an NFL draft where the United States has the first, oh, million or so draft picks. And rather than exercising those picks, i.e., choosing by whatever criteria we want—such as education, enterprise, technical skills and creativity—we admit the tiniest fraction of the best and brightest and permit millions of the unskilled to pour in instead.”
— Charles Krauthammer
CAN IT be that Republicans are educable? And that the world isn’t new to them every day, as it is for geese and fools?
Remember when President Bush the First reneged on his “no new taxes” pledge? It was supposed to be a compromise with the Democrats holding Congress at the time. Republicans would allow taxes to rise—somewhat—and Democrats would help reduce the deficit by cutting government. We remember the taxes. Does anybody remember reduction in spending?
Even before that, Republicans were taken for a ride with the immigration bill of 1986 during the Reagan administration. In exchange for amnesty for several million illegals, the country was supposed to get tougher border restrictions. Somehow, after amnesty was granted, Congress didn’t get around to funding more border security. (By 1989, the New York Times was reporting that illegal border crossings were increasing again.)
See the above quote by Dr. Krauthammer. It was made in 2006. Border security has been a problem going back a generation. And even longer. The building of walls for protection goes back to, well, Jericho.
The current president of the United States is on the front pages these days, demanding a wall on the southern border. He says any compromise on immigration has “got to include the wall.” In exchange, word has it that he’d compromise on the DACA kids, that is, those 800,000 or so young people who were brought to this country as children.
But security first: “Security is No. 1,” President Trump said. “So the answer is you have to have the wall.”
Who can blame him? The man says he’s a great deal maker. Which means he must also know when a bad deal is in the offing. And perhaps somebody on his staff has clued him in to the history of the other side.
Security first.
Every country should have the right to admit who it wants. And have a real border, too, not just lines on a map. It’s that way in most places. Even in those hotbeds of right-wing brooding like France, Greece, Norway and Spain.
Now whether this American “wall” will be, or should be, a wall without scare quotes is another matter. President Trump campaigned on an actual physical wall. Which by some estimates will cost as much as $20 billion. Not to mention annual upkeep. But a border can also be secured with cameras and drones and wire and patrols. And if those measures only create choke points, that would still make the border manageable, instead of the non-border it is today.
Americans must one day get our southern border under control. Unlimited immigration not only hurts workers in this country, it’s also dangerous. And rare. We’d refer Gentle Reader to the borders of other countries all around the world. Even around the liberal democracies.
There are many Americans on both sides of the political aisle who want illegal immigrants to come out from their hiding places, enjoy the freedom afforded to those living in America, and one day get on that elusive path to citizenship. (And get out from under those who’d use their fear of discovery to harass them, and worse.)
But why would Americans even start talking about paths to citizenship without a secure border first? Answer: They wouldn’t. And shouldn’t.
Our politicians in Washington have made promises about border security before. On this issue, here’s hoping this new president keeps his.
BETWEEN writing the headline above and the sentence you just read, the president has been heard from again. We’re not sure we understand everything we know about his stand on immigration now.
President Trump met with a group of lawmakers from both parties at the White House on Wednesday, and told the press he’d go along with whatever they hammered out in negotiations:
“I will be signing it. I’m not going to say, ‘Oh, gee, I want this or I want that.’”
Why change now, Mr. President?
For the better part of two years, everything has been I-want-this or I-want-that. The American people want better border controls, a sensible immigration system, and national security demands it. If you’re given a bill that grants the opposition everything, and only promises you something, later, in return, there’s a simple answer: the veto pen.
Security first. And it has to be more than a lick and a promise.