Pathway to Codswallop
30th July 2015
Steyn on illegal immigration.
Every sentient Republican voter knows that “comprehensive immigration reform” is Beltway-speak for legalizing 30 million law-breakers while incentivizing 30 million more.
On their public statements, it is difficult to know what these guys really believe on immigration from one week to the next. Which in itself is rather strange: after all, among what Hillary Clinton calls “everyday Americans”, most people who want an end to illegal immigration have held that view consistently for some time; they were not, a year ago, gung ho for amnesty, in-state tuition discounts, no-questions-asked drivers’ licenses, pathways to citizenship, and another 30 million unskilled Latin-American peasants to start the comprehensive tango anew. But half their presidential candidates were. Odd. Yet, if you had to plump for one side or the other, if you had to toss a coin, wouldn’t the safer bet be that, with all the above, it’s their amnesty phase (which oddly enough tends to occur in the presidential off-season) that represents their genuine position?
July 30th, 2015 at 08:50
Short of setting up an Iron Curtain-type barrier along the border with shoot-on-sight orders, I don’t know what you can do to stop the flow of people who want to come to the USA.
People want a better life. They can get a better life here, or believe they can–and judging by the conditions in most of their home countries, they are correct in that belief. Even if they are making $0.50 a day here, they were only making $0.10 a day there, and ran the risk of being shot at random…or not so random.
They will keep coming, regardless of whatever type of interdiction we devise. Markets work even when you don’t want them to.