Posted by
Bert Chapman on Thursday, May 31, 2007 5:55:44 PM
Count me as another conservative opposing S. 1348, the immigration bill. This legislation has some positive features like enhanced border security provisions. Unfortunately, its drawbacks are far more numerous including its pernicious provisions which would effectively provide amnesty for innumerable illegal immigrants.
The U.S. must remain a nation of laws with these laws applying equally to all citizens and would be citizens. Title 8 of the U.S. Code already features several hundred pages documenting U.S. immigration law. It's high time these existing laws were properly enforced against those violating them!
Other nations in the world make better efforts to enforce their immigration laws than the U.S. does and do so because they value the sanctity of the rule of law and the need to maintain societal cohesion. Could you imagine an American emigrating to Brazil and flagrantly disobeying Brazilian immigration laws and not assimilating into Brazilian society by refusing to learn Portuguese? Of course not. Unfortunately, many illegal immigrants, primarily those of Hispanic ancestry, illegally enter the U.S., expect governmental services to be provided to them, refuse to learn English and think they are entitled to the benefits of the American dream. These blatantly illegal immigrants are aided and abetted by an unholy alliance of businesses who mistakenly believe they need to hire illegal aliens and leftist immigration advocacy organizations who encourage immigrants to disobey the law.
Matters are exacerbated further when conservative supporters of this imprudent legislation, such as South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham, launch ad hominem attacks against this legislation's critics by calling us "bigots" or other rhetoric more commonly used by the political and academic left to villify their opponents. Crying racism is the first refuge of liberal scoundrels and Graham's attacks only demonstrate the absolute intellectual and political bankruptcy of this legislation's apologists.
We need immigration legislation that promotes immigrant compliance with U.S. laws, provides effective border security, and makes societal cohesion its highest priority. The critical importance of societal cohesion and the current challenges to it in the U.S. are ably documented in Samuel Huntington's 2004 book Who Are We?: The Challenges to America's Identy. Such legislation must not obsequiously pander to business apologists for illegal immigration and their partners in arms from illegal immigrant advocacy organizations such as La Raza.
American immigration policy has been most successful when immigrants have assimilated into the Judeo-Christian and Anglo-Saxon centric vision of national identity. When multicultural mush becomes the basis for national immigration policy societal balkanization and disintegration are not far behind. The examples of Rwanda, East Timor, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and the former Yugoslavia during the past two decades are cogent examples of the dangers of a multicultural society. We would do well to follow the admonition of Australian historian Keith Windschuttle who says multiracial societies can be successful but multicultural societies are destined to fail.