The illegal immigration debate has come to a head once again. Congress remains at an impasse over a temporary spending bill that Senate Democrats refuse to support unless it includes a provision that would allow several hundred thousand illegal aliens to remain in the United States without fear of deportation. It’s a tiresome ploy by the Democrats, abetted by their allies in the media, using deceptive language to paint a false picture that blurs the distinction between legal and illegal, citizen and foreigner, justice and injustice.
Enough obfuscation. Here are some of the most pernicious myths of illegal immigration, debunked.
The System is “Broken”
Broken for whom exactly? Not for Mexico and Latin America. Together they garner $50 billion in annual remittances. The majority of such transfers are likely sent from illegal aliens.
Some of that largess is also subsidized by the entitlements American taxpayers pay that free up this disposable cash for sending abroad. In the eyes of Mexico and Latin America, the only thing that would make our system appear “broken” would be enforcing existing U.S. immigration law.
Or perhaps “broken” would be defined as novel ways of paying for Trump’s wall—by either taxing remittances or so discouraging illegal immigration that a reduction of dollar outflows could be counted (at least rhetorically) as down payments on border construction.
The immigration system is also clearly not broken for the Democratic Party. It has turned California blue. It soon will do the same to Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico, and someday may flip Arizona and Texas.
If the statist, redistributionist, and identity politics principles of the Democrats no longer appeal to 51 percent of the electorate, then why would they give up on the annual investment in nearly hundreds of thousands of new arrivals that by some means, and in the not too distant future, would translate into loyal, politically predictable voters for whom this approach to politics is second nature?
Employers believe the system is anything but broken. Any good news for the country about skyrocketing minority employment numbers is likely to be bad news for them if it means declining numbers of cheaper illegal aliens to hire. Open borders have ensured the hiring of industrious workers at cheap wages while passing on the accruing health, educational, legal, and criminal justice costs to the taxpayer. The present system is “working” well enough for this crowd; its possible replacement instead would be defined as “broken.”
Ethnic tribunes support illegal immigration. If the border were closed and the melting pot allowed to work, the façade of identity politics would vanish in a generation.
Recently added accents would be dropped. Hyphenated names would disappear. Trilled r’s would become rare. La Raza/Chicano/Latino Studies programs would become about as popular as Basque or Portuguese. If immigrants from Mexico came in measured numbers, legally, with high-school diplomas, and along with diverse immigrants from all over the world, then rapid assimilation and integration would soon render them politically individuals, not tribes. Someone like California Senate Leader Kevin de León (born Kevin Alexander Leon) would never have needed a preposition and an accent mark.
Broken? More likely, most welcomed.
Illegal aliens, of course, believe the present system is working well, at least compared to the possible alternatives. Legal applicants, still faithfully believing in a now-nonexistent system, wait in line. Those south of the border simply cross.
The moment Mexican citizens—unlike Poles, Australians, or Koreans—reach American soil they or their children, in theory, will become categorized as a minority eligible for government affirmative action and preferred hiring. It is as if Los Angeles or Reno had something to do with the centuries-long racial oppression by an ethnically Spanish-legacy elite 500 miles south of the border.
American elites welcome illegal immigration, both for the cheap labor and for the opportunity to virtue signal their magnanimity, perhaps as much as they seem rarely to live adjacent to the barrio or keep their children in schools that are impacted by immigrants, and or shop where English is rarely spoken.
In sum, the system is working for everyone. It is broken only for the naïfs who worry over the long-term consequences of rendering the law null and void, and of ceding our culture to arriving populations for the most part not yet accustomed to the habits that sustain personal and political freedom.
But the “Dreamers”!
There are 700,000-800,000 DACA recipients, though no one knows the exact numbers. Nor is there a clear definition of who constitutes the population of the “Dreamers,” other than arriving into the United States illegally as a minor. It is an ossified concept, one frozen in amber, given that the average age of a so-called “Dreamer” around 25. When a Dreamer reaches 40, is he still defined as a Dreamer? Or have his “dreams” already come true?
Naturally, minors should not be penalized for the transgressions of their parents. But a large percentage of the DACA cohort is now six or more years into adulthood. Yet upon turning 18 apparently, most have made little effort to obtain either green cards or citizenship.
College graduation and military service are often referenced as DACA talking points. In truth, some studies suggest that just one in 20 dreamers graduated from college. One in a 1,000 has served in the military. So far, about eight times more Dreamers have not graduated from high school than have graduated from college.
Dreamers represent less than 10 percent of all illegal aliens residing in the United States. They are also a fraction of the ignored millions of foreign students from all over the world who seek, often in vain, to study in the United States or are skilled applicants for green cards. Such depressing statistics about DACA might not matter—if supporters of open borders did not always cite incomplete or misleading data.
Weaponizing the Language
Most of the vocabulary surrounding illegal immigration is both politicized and weaponized—as we have seen with “Dreamers.”
Illegal immigration is conflated with legal immigration in order to smear critics with charges of biases against the “other” rather than of simply expressing concerns over legality and sovereignty. By progressive prepping of the linguistic battlefield, some conservatives feel a continued need to “prove” they are not racists by granting more and more exemptions from immigration laws.
“Sanctuary cities” are not “sanctuaries” in the manner we think of a cathedral in a Victor Hugo novel. They are nullification centers where foreign nationals who have broken laws are not subject to full enforcement of immigration laws, due entirely to political considerations.
“Sanctuary city” is not an abstract philosophical term. None of the current sanctuary cities would agree in principle with other jurisdictions in similar fashion nullifying federal laws that advanced left-wing policy objectives. The sobriquet is a euphemism for 1850s-style proto-Confederate, states-rights chauvinism, dressed up similarly in pseudo-moralistic terms.
“Undocumented immigrant” suggests that the problem is a matter of forgetting to bring legal documents, rather than a decision to ignore the need for legal authorization. To become “un-documented” one might first have had to become “documented.” Yet almost no illegal aliens ever were registered as immigrant applicants.
“Undocumented” replaced the adjective “illegal,” just as “immigrant” (and increasingly just “migrant”) superseded the noun “alien.” That is, when the Democratic Party realized that swelling Latino populations began to vote en masse and could salvage what its failing message could not.
At that point, around 2010 or so, the old Democratic and progressive admonitions about illegal immigration cutting the wages of the poor, impeding unionization, and siphoning away social welfare entitlements from the citizen poor were finally and completely jettisoned (along with the language once used by Jimmy Carter and the Clintons). Euphemisms replaced descriptive vocabulary in efforts to construct a new reality.
“Diversity” is often associated with illegal immigration. In fact, the majority of illegal immigrants come from Latin American and Mexico. They are hardly diverse. Real diversity would be recalibrating immigration to be legal, meritocratic, and aimed at roughly equal representation from Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe—and thus politically unpredictable.
Political Epithets: Racism and Xenophobia
The cargo of illiberal accusations is likewise constructed, given the United States is the most pro-Latino country in the world, Mexico included. Half of all immigrants, both legal and illegal, come either from Mexico or Latin America—a sort of inverse racism that assumes illegal Spanish-speaking immigrants are intrinsically more deserving of U.S. residence than legal immigration applicants from Uganda, South Korea, or Ukraine.
The constitution of Mexico carefully delineates all sorts of offices that are not open to naturalized citizens. It lists a variety of immigration offenses that result in automatic deportation or imprisonment—the constant theme being Mexico wants skilled immigrants who can help Mexico (consistent with its constitutional prohibitions against any immigration that might adversely affect “the equilibrium of the national demographics”).
What is also not diverse is Mexico and Latin America. The vast majorities of the population there share roughly similar ethnic heritages and a common language and religion; small numbers of minorities such as blacks are treated as second-class citizens.
Strange, too, are the outward theatrics and themes of illegal alien activism—the frequent waving of Mexican flags, the often loud criticism of a generous host country, the usual demands made upon a foreign nation—mysteriously coupled with the overwhelming desire of millions to enter or remain in the supposedly demonic United States. Waving a flag of a country that one does not wish to return to while shunning the flag of a country in which one very much wishes to reside is incoherent.
What is humane and progressive is defining people by the content of their character rather than by their superficial appearance or ethnic affinities—a notion contrary to the engine of identity politics. Finally, many ethnic activists are accepting that reality. Why otherwise would the National Council of La Raza belatedly at last drop the nomenclature of “The Race” shortly after the 2016 election to become UnidosUS (“us united”)?
Is America Great or Not?
The entire image of the United States has been smeared in most discussions of illegal immigration.
The thrust of ethnic studies departments, the narratives of open borders activists, the pageantry and symbolism of mass immigration demonstrations, and the chauvinism embedded into popular culture is mostly couched in implicit anti-Americanism. At least we are led to believe that a culpable America has done wrong in the present and the past, and has to restore its morality by allowing open borders and illegal immigration. But who are the arbiters of American ethics? Vicente Fox? MS-13 gang-bangers? Those whose first act in entering America was to break its laws?
Millions are fleeing paradigms that they apparently judged as wanting, either politically, economically, or socially, or all that and more. Why, then, would foreign nationals have ceased romanticizing their new generous hosts upon their arrival and begun idealizing, instead, their rejected birthplace? And if these are their true feelings on the matter, why did they leave?
Second, there rarely is expressed any formal analysis of why one wishes to enter the United States and leave one’s home country.
What, then, exactly makes a naturally rich Mexico rather poor and naturally poor New Mexico rather rich? Why is Venezuela a mess and Colorado is not? Has anyone prohibited Mexico from reformatting its constitution to ensure an independent judiciary, the rule of law, a free-market economy, the protection and free sale of private property, a bill of rights, unfettered free speech, a meritocratic civil service, transparency in law enforcement, and an ethnically blind culture?
The question is not just mindless American boosterism. In the past, immigrants accepted that they had left Ireland, Italy, or Poland because habits, customs, and government in their home countries were deemed wanting and unworkable, and therefore it was necessary to embrace their antitheses in the United States. It would have made no sense to flee from Italy and expect to live life in America on the premises that an Italian lived in Italy. Immigration, again brutally or not, is a complex two-step hard bargain that succeeds only when one accepts his chosen country—and de facto rejects the collective protocols of his birthplace.
Why do these mythologies abound? Largely because Americans, the hosts, either cannot anymore even define their own civilization to would-be immigrants, or are so intimidated that they are terrified to even try.
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This article should be required reading for, well, pretty much every person who resides in the United States. Bravo, VDH, your logic and solid grasp of facts and truths are refreshing and impactful as always.
You’re making lots of assumptions. Many, if not most, liberals under 40 cannot read at the level Hanson writes.
Tragically true.
Those who can read will be too triggered to make it to the second sentence.
If Mitch McConnell wants to go to war and lose, then try to push an amnesty for the DACA illegal aliens through. McConnell may have won the battle with the Democrat Socialists by getting them to back down, but the same screaming, angry calls blasting the Democrats for putting illegal aliens above Americans will be turned on the GOP in the Senate if they try to legalize those arrogant, entitled illegal aliens!!! WE THE PEOPLE WILL NOT HAVE ANOTHER AMNESTY! PERIOD! END OF STORY!
If you think the DACAs and the rest of the 30 million illegals are ever going to be deported, you’re living in fantasy land. They are here to stay, they will soon be on a “path to citizenship,” and America will be another third-world shiite-hole.
I totally agree. If nothing else a judge will call discrimination on the rest of the illegals here. And claim there’s no difference between DACA and illegal immigrants. What’s next?
I see where you are going but where these liberal judges get trapped is that ‘racism’, under the law(s), can only be applied to American citizens…
It’s not just the judges – no pol is going to endorse deportation – not a one. And, the vast majority of the folks won’t support it either. You are living in a humanist (unrealistic sappy sentimentalism) society and will face the consequences.
One way to make the Democrats squirm is to (as the author hints) propose more ‘diverse’ immigration quotas: 1/4 from Latin America, 1/4 from Asia, 1/4 from Europe and 1/4 from Africa. It’s unassailably tolerant, and would be especially appreciated by African Americans and Asian Americans.
And yet the tribal Left – especially California – would be compelled to expose their “Latinos First!” ideology, as this balanced proposal would result in continued deportation of those from south of our border who make up the lion’s share of immigrants. This proposal would defeat the tired old “racist” charges against the Right while exposing the tribalism and hate of the Left.
The major immigration (legal) to CA is now from Asia.
Do you want the DACA contingent deported? Why?
why you ask?
because i don’t want the rest of america to wind up as messed up and dysfunctional as california. if our elected GOP representatives give amnesty, again, then california is our future.
Here are some facts:
We have about 700,000 people who were brought to this country as children and are currently out of legal status (both having been brought here illegally or who overstayed their visas), who were for the most part raised here and know no other home. The US taxpayer paid for their education. They speak fluent English. They know American culture. They, by definition, are more law abiding than American citizens as a whole (if they commit a notable crime, they don’t qualify for DACA or are expelled).
For the vast majority of these people, they are as American as anyone else is.
Theoretically, the law says they should be deported. The fact is that the US government failed to enforce the law to deport them in a timely manner, and therefore, instead of being a foreigner in our land, they would be a foreigner in the land of their birth.
Morally, deporting people who are Americans in all but papers would be equivalent to rounding up everyone with a Japanese last name and putting them into a camp. History would judge that very harshly.
We should therefore accept the responsibility for incompetent government and let them become Americans. However, we should demand this not happen again. In the last amnesty law, Speaker Tip O’Neil promised Reagan enhanced border security, but it never happened. We shouldn’t be fooled again. The government must improve over its incompetence and stop people from entering illegally, deport those that do, and remove the motivation to (ending chain migration would do a lot for that goal).
Those children were brought here by their parents, either in the womb or on their own feet, illegally. The children had no choice; it was their parents who broke the law by coming here. I don’t think either the parents or the children should be allowed to stay. But that’s an unpopular position to take because . . . Democrats need votes. Or whatever. But a crime was committed and someone should pay a price for it.
So I have a suggestion.
Let the Dreamer “children” decide. Either they get to stay in the US, or their parents get to stay in the US. But not both. Make the parents or the kids feel some pain.
The children should not get to decide, the people should. And hopefully the way the immigration bill turns out is that chain migration will end, and the law breaking parents will have to go home.
Somewhere here I described my young DACA friend who was brought to the US on a visa when she was one year old, and her parents overstayed, but she didn’t know she was an illegal until she was ready to get a drivers license. Here is the tragic irony: She has a sister currently in high school who was born here. Under current law, the law breaking parents can be sponsored by the anchor baby child in a few years, just as soon as she turns 21 and be made a permanent resident without a waiting list. But the innocent older sister would have to be put on a waiting list at that time, as the lowest preference category for family based immigration. Even though she did nothing wrong, she is the one that can get screwed over the most in all of this. Ending chain migration means the parents would be subject to deportation as soon as the US citizen child becomes and adult, and that would be fit and proper.
Maybe the “dreamers” could claim squatters’ rights…
Didn’t you read the essay.
But the “Dreamers”!
There are 700,000-800,000 DACA
recipients, though no one knows the exact numbers. Nor is there a clear
definition of who constitutes the population of the “Dreamers,” other
than arriving into the United States illegally as a minor. It is an
ossified concept, one frozen in amber, given that the average age of a
so-called “Dreamer” around 25. When a Dreamer reaches 40, is he still
defined as a Dreamer? Or have his “dreams” already come true?
Naturally, minors should not
be penalized for the transgressions of their parents. But a large
percentage of the DACA cohort is now six or more years into adulthood.
Yet upon turning 18 apparently, most have made little effort to obtain
either green cards or citizenship.
College graduation and
military service are often referenced as DACA talking points. In truth,
some studies suggest that just one in 20 dreamers graduated from
college. One in a 1,000 has served in the military. So far, about eight
times more Dreamers have not graduated from high school than have
graduated from college.
Dreamers represent less than
10 percent of all illegal aliens residing in the United States. They
are also a fraction of the ignored millions of foreign students from all
over the world who seek, often in vain, to study in the United States
or are skilled applicants for green cards. Such depressing statistics
about DACA might not matter—if supporters of open borders did not always
cite incomplete or misleading data.
And you didn’t read my rebuttal where I pointed out why those points are misleading and in error.
“But a large percentage of the DACA cohort is now six or more years into adulthood”
But they did not violate the law, their parents did. Because my father violated some law once upon a time, should I be in jail for it? That is not how Anglo-American law works.
“most have made little effort to obtain either green cards or citizenship.”
How? What immigration category should they apply to?
IR1: Spouse of US citizens – Some
IR2: Unmarried child (under 21) of US Citizen – No
IR3: Orphan adopted abroad by US Citizen – No
IR4: Orphan adopted in US by US Citizen – No
IR5: Parent of an adult US Citizen – No
F1: Adult unmarried sons and daughters of US citizens. – No
F2A: Spouses and unmarried children of US residents – A few
F2B: Adult unmarried sons and daughters of US residents – No
F3: Married sons and daughters of US Citizens – No
F4: Brothers and sisters of adult US Citizens – A few (wait is in some cases over 20 years)
EB-1 Priority Workers – Not generally
EB-2 Advanced Degree Professionals – A few
EB-3 Professionals & Other Workers – A few
EB-4 Religious Workers & Others – A few
EB-5 Investors – No
“One in a 1,000 has served in the military.”
DACAs are not permitted to join the military unless they have a special skill, such as speaking a terrorist language.
“eight times more Dreamers have not graduated from high school than have graduated from college.”
You are mixing up terms. “Dreamers” is a broader term than DACA. Not all “Dreamers” qualify for DACA and the Republicans (except Spineless Lindsey) are not proposing legalization for anyone except those who meet the qualifications of DACA. College is a challenge, since they do not qualify for federal financial aid and many states do not offer in-state tuition to DACAs. To be a DACA one MUST have graduated from high school, have a GED, or be in school.
I would take every DACA member and rank them from 1 to 10. It would be on a case by case basis.
1,2 3’s would be deported. 4,5 and 6’s would have to leave and apply for US immigration. 8,9,and 10’s should be allowed to stay and be given a clear and expedient pathway to
citizen. If they are all 8, 9 and 10’s, so be it. If they are all 1,2 and 3’s, well, that works also.
We all suffer from the sins of our fathers.
Many US citizens of tired of politicians encouraging illegal immigration to win the Latino vote and gain and
maintain political power. And many are just as tired of countries like Mexico,Dominican Republic, Honduras, EL
Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela encouraging their citizens to seek illegal entry into the US to solve
their political, unemployment, under employment and lack of skills problems, then salivate as the remittances flow in, some of it from drug sales.
As for the ‘Anglo-America’legal system, I defy anyone to tell me how it should work. Illegal immigrants
should have been rounded-up decades ago and deported. That a pregnant woman can cross illegally
into the US from Mexico, have the baby, which is now a US citizen and become attached to our welfare system through Medicaid, Food Stamps, Housing Assistance is insane. She could be deported and her and the father can decide
how the child will be cared for. We have our own problem with illegitimacy and don’t need to import anymore.
As for education, it seems to me that many DACA’s have received a nearly free public education through 12th
grade. Did they pay property tax that helps to fund public schools? Maybe, some did? If they are illegal, why
should they receive instate tuition?
Why would the US Military make it easy for illegals to get into the service?
From https://citizenpath.com/mavni-program/
Although it isn’t a military secret per
se, MAVNI is a small and very exclusive program that benefits immigrants and
the U.S. military. Military Accessions Vital to the
National Interest (MAVNI) is a special recruiting program that
may be available to some immigrants interested in joining the U.S. military.
Generally, immigrants must be permanent residents to join the military (see Military Enlistment Requirements);
once enlisted these green card soldiers can take advantage of expedited citizenship.
However, MAVNI allows certain non-citizens in the United States to join the
military and thereby gain eligibility for U.S. citizenship without first having
to go through the lengthy process of obtaining a green card. The MAVNI program
began in 2009 and remains a pilot program. In late 2016 the program
suspended the application process until certain revisions could be
implemented.
MAVNI Open to DACA Recipients
Individuals who have been granted deferred action by the Department of Homeland
Security pursuant to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) process
are eligible for consideration. Generally the MAVNI requirements stipulate a
legal immigration status. However, the military service may on a case by case basis waive the
requirement that the foreign national be in a status described above.
This seems generous to me.
” it seems to me that many DACA’s have received a nearly free public education through 12th
grade.”
There was a court case decades ago that requires all children living in the US to be eligible for and required to attend public school. We can’t do anything about that, and must deal with it pragmatically. What is worse, though, is that there are residents of Mexico, who live IN Mexico who attend public school in the US at US taxpayer expense. Now that burns my britches.
MAVNI only accepts specializations, for which few DACAs have, things like speaking a terrorist language.
Applying a merit system to DACAs would be interesting, but politically implausible at this point. Tweaking the requirements for legalization would work. I am concerned that Trump just offered lowering the standards instead of raising them.
Do more research, please. 25% are illiterate. 46% speak only basic english. The majority do not have even a high school education. These are unskilled, uneducated people who are a burden on US taxpayers. This was the goal of Obama’s executive order: call them Dreamers, pretend theyre kids (theyre not), let them stay long enough and nobody will want to send them home. Please. There was no vetting process – 2600 were gang members. Any amnesty for a few will be turned into an amnesty for all by our liberal judiciary.
Maybe you should read up on the DACA program. They have to be in school or have graduated high school. They are no less skilled than Americans as a whole, and are more law abiding because if they commit a significant crime, they don’t qualify.
Perhaps you are the one that needs to do the research. Here are the official qualifications for DACA applicants:
are under 31 years of age as of June 15, 2012;
came to the U.S. while under the age of 16;
have continuously resided in the U.S. from June 15, 2007 to the
present. (For purposes of calculating this five year period, brief and
innocent absences from the United States for humanitarian reasons will
not be included);
entered the U.S. without inspection or fell out of lawful visa status before June 15, 2012;
were physically present in the United States on June 15, 2012, and
at the time of making the request for consideration of deferred action
with USCIS;
are currently in school, have graduated from high school, have
obtained a GED, or have been honorably discharged from the Coast Guard
or armed forces;
have not been convicted of a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor, or more than three misdemeanors of any kind; and
do not pose a threat to national security or public safety.
So, if you say that 25% are illiterate, then that says a lot more about the US public education system than it does the people that are products of it.
Your note contains a lot about the timeframe and ages and not so much about the requirements, but let’s address those. Apparently you missed the news that there was no vetting process under Obama, and they waived most of the so-called “requirements”. You qualified as being “currently in school” if you were taking a knitting class. Which is why many DACA recipients have not graduated high school. Somehow 2500 MS13 gang members skated through the “Not convicted of a felony offense” requirement. I’d say gang members are a threat to public safety, woudlnt you? If those were the requirements, how did TWENTY FIVE HUNDRED gang members slip through?
It would seem that people eager to become citizens in a new country would want to learn the language. These immigrants tended to overstate their English ability and use translators, paid for by US taxpayers, of course.
Also disturbing and not mentioned in your little note, is the CBO report that almost one-fifth of illegals eligible for DACA would wind up taking food stamps within 10 years.
How does this benefit our country and its citizens, you know, the ones who pay the taxes for the services for the so-called Dreamers?
“almost one-fifth of illegals eligible for DACA would wind up taking food stamps”
DACAs are ineligible for food stamps.
You are done.
When they receive amnesty, they will be eligible, and the calculation is based on poverty levels now. They would qualify.
If you took what you just read as an example of a high level of writing you are making some bold assumptions yourself
Get a GED, you Moron
VDH writes at a level established during times when our education system produced high school graduates who could read and write.
Today, colleges must offer remedial courses for first-year students in reading and writing.
Semi-literacy in America is widespread and deepening with the advance of culturally constant TV/Social Media feeds.
Were it not for the stain associated with plagiarism, I believe VDH should seek to ally with a second writer who could distill his clear, critical thinking into a vernacular. A “repeater”, a political Ebonics if you will. The thoughts of VDH should be more accessible to all.
VDH’s thoughts could not be conveyed by Eubonics.
“Hear Hear”
There, there now.
TY. My comment was destined for a different string.
The cognitive dissonance of the left’s debate on immigration is astronomical. America is terrible on diversity (compared to who? Saudi Arabia?), America is rich and can afford open borders (have you read the federal budget numbers?), the people coming here have to because their home countries are terrible (wait I thought America is terrible?, Mexico is enlightened, El Salvador and Haiti aren’t sh$tho%es) .
“We demand our right to inhabit this racist, bigoted, oppresive country and we demand financial support with the money and wealth wrongly gained by theft and white supremacy and privilege.”
Something like that…
Now I get it !
And we demand the right to fly the flag of the sh$thole country we left and curse the bigoted taxpayers in our new country who foot the bill for our food, housing, education and medical expenses.
And all brought to us all by the US Federal Government and its bleeding heart, spineless, globalist, progressive politicians.
Agree…This very well written article needs to be sent to every single member of Congress, and signed off as being “read”…that is, if they can…read.
His last paragraph needs a bit of clarification.
Some years ago, “smart” people made an attempt to identify the tendency of Americans to remain clueless and ignorant of politics and the important issues behind it. They called it “rational ignorance” and defined it as a “rational” decision by people to not spend time becoming educated or knowledgeable about subjects that have no influence on their day-to-day lives.
Of course, this euphemistic phrase turns laziness and self-centeredness into a virtue by calling it “rational” and implicitly tosses civic-mindedness into the dumpster of history. And, also, people no longer have to feel guilty about this state of affairs because it’s been declared BAU by the “smart” people.
As we can see, more and more, “ignorance” is never rational nor a permanent place in which to reside. Americans who continue to ignore national issues and the decisions our government continues to make under the façade of the “support” of voters…do so at the risk of our very way of life.
With that in mind, the issues and warnings that people like Mark Steyn and Victor D Hanson continue to make known need to be spread far and wide and people need to pay attention. They may concur or object to their views…which is their right…but remaining ignorant of them is the way of the fool. And we’ve had quite enough from the fools already running the country.
How many illegal grape pickers do you employ on your farm Victor?
Clever. Do you have any evidence AT ALL that Hanson employs illegal aliens? I doubt it.
I’m from Fresno County. I worked in a vineyard at age 14 hoeing weeks. Anyone who lives there knows it isn’t all Americans doing the work. Yeah me and my high school buddies did it. The peeps in the field next to us couldn’t speak English.
Your knowledge of how things generally get done proves nothing about how things are done on Hanson’s particular farm.
Which is why I asked the question, given that many farmers in the SJV employ illegal immigrants. It’s a fair question since his neighbors do it – and when I say his neighbors its because I know them. Personally. Note I did NOT say I knew VDH, just his neighbors (within 10 miles).
Nope – you “asked the question” as a form of innuendo – typical Lib-Leftist, cheap attempt to deceive.
I’m sure many of your neighbors, including ones in whatever occupation you’re in, do illegal things. Suppose I knew from personal experience that that’s true.
Is it then a fair question if I ask: “How many laws have you broken, Rob?”
I didn’t say I knew you, or anything about your actual behavior. Yet the question impugns you by implication.
You first Ron.
Nice evasion. It wasn’t a question to be answered. It was an analogy to your snarky question to Hanson.
And why did you do that? To make money. And why don’t you still do it? Because it doesn’t pay very well. And why does it pay so poorly? Because a high school kid can do it, and also because illegal labor is so cheap and readily available that it drives the wage down.
But, that’s not evidence they are “illegal” or that Hanson employs illegals. You’re typical irrational Lib-thinker.
Pretty racist of you saying only the illegals know how to pick grapes. How many illegals do you employ to wipe your azz?
With this guy I’m not certain that ANYONE… illegal or otherwise… would be able to determine exactly which end to wipe.
fuck you. I’m from the Valley and know how this gets done.
But you don’t know anything about Hanson.
He’s a dipshiite Lib – he fallaciously generalizes – Hanson is SYMBOLICALLY guilty in his perverse mind.
Repeat f you. I’m a Republican and a life member of the NRA who actually grew up in the San Joaquin Valley and did agricultural work. Use of illegal labor in agriculture is common. I never owned a farm and I mow my own lawn, so don’t attempt to turn this around on me. I asked a simple (and fair) question and you all closed ranks rather than thinking this through. The chamber of commerce wing of my political party has you fooled. They LIKE illegals. See also Lindsey Graham.
None of that bullshiite is relevant to the fact that you exhibit illogical thinking. You’re just plain stupid.
Actually I’ve been reading his stuff for years and wondering about his labor practices as a farmer the whole time given that I know the business (at least as a worker).
“wondering about his labor practices as a farmer”
So, you’ve been wondering. But, apparently, you don’t actually know anything about his practices.
Those aren’t employees. They’re illegals looting his orchards and stealing his equipment.
No different than any other family owned orchards in Mexifornia not fenced off with electrified barb wire.
Less than you.
Your comment is a perfect example of how a unsupported question can be used as a baseless slur.
Do you have any reason to suggest that he employs any illegals at all? You don’t even know enough about his farming to know that he doesn’t grow grapes.
2 points –
First, funding the wall is actually fairly simple. Put a minimum of a 10% Federal tax on all Western Union and Moneygram money transfers to Mexico, Central America, and South America. 30 billion a year is sent to Mexico alone. The tax would fund the wall in 1 year and provide additional funding to maintain the wall, and to provide funding to hire more Border Patrol agents.
Second, Sorry New Mexico has been a Dhimmicrat stronghold since 1912 when it became a State. Yes, it occasionally votes for a Republican President, but not that often. The State Legislature has been controlled by the Dhimmicrats 95%+ since 1912.
We hope to get the State to switch to Republicans, but the problem is we have people here that have been voting consistently for 300 years, even if they have been dead for 250 of those years!!
NYC may have had Tammany Hall, and Chicago has had its run of long term corruption, but New Mexico’s corruption has been around since the 1690s and has no intentions of ending.
Yeah, the thing about new Mexico not being blue already caught my attention, too. I ran the numbers on $18 billion over ten years for the wall. That’s $1.8 billion per year. I used the number $25 billion in remission to Mexico per year. So, a tax of 6.5% on wire transfers pays for the wall. It ain’t rocket surgery.
I’ve never understood why they don’t put a tax on monies being sent out as remittances to Mexico and the Central American countries. That should be a requirement. That is money (in complete opposition of the Dems who constantly tell us how illegals contribute to our economy) – that is NOT put back into our economy. Billions of dollars that could be spent here is just given to these other countries. This needs to happen — it could be $5 a transaction, anything.
That wall would be paid for in a year.
“the centuries-long racial oppression by an ethnically Spanish-legacy elite 500 miles south of the border.”
Thank God for this guy. There is a reason why the Revolutionary Party has yet to consolidate the 60-70 year-old revolution.
Still, VDH is not enough to keep subscribed to National Review
He would be enough — but Steyn and Derb are gone, and Williamson and Goldberg and French have reduced it to glossy birdcage liner.
Great article!
I too have a “Dream.” I would like to see re-prints of this article in the Op-Ed sections of the NYT, WAPO, WSJ, USA Today, CSM, St. Louis Post-Dispatch…………..fill in the blank. All on the same day!! Both print & online editions.
“St Louis Post-Disgrace”…..you spelled it wrong but I fixed it for you.
Absurd. In a “Dreamer” march in the state capitol of Oregon, the marchers carried La Raza and Mecha signs as well as Mexican flags and whispered in unison “Meh-he-co, Meh-he-co.”
Imagine Americans marching in Mexico city, holding American flags and carrying signs that said “White People Rule (La Raza) and “Overthrow Mexico” (Mecha.)
I doubt the government of Mexico would roll out the poorly made carpet and offer the deadbeat Yankees free “mierda”
FWIW https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1d718896ae1bc261e041cfacab2c975bafcd92658511e1b3d3d2715cace690e9.jpg
Because America, that is why.
Without context your comment has no meaning.
Sorry. When things aren’t painfully obvious it can get tricky. Let me walk you through it. You posted a picture questioning why people can proudly wave the flag of another country in America. I pointed out that this is America and you can wave whatever flag you want, because, well, America. Hope that helps
What was painfully obvious in your cryptic message? I agree that America for the time being is still free and this freedom allows them to tell other Americans in which country they really belong. However; the picture also makes it clear these people are not Americans, do not want to be Americans, but they do want to remain squatting in a country they are not legally entitled to remain.
And how can you tell that the people in that picture aren’t Americans?
By the message it sends. One can be a citizen, but not an American and that’s generally a function of ideology. Perhaps we can refer to them as AINO’s or better yet MAINO’s.
The message? One guy is holding up a sign against Trump. 65% of Americans disapprove of Trump. I guess we aren’t citizens either. More likely you simply can’t make that assertion just by looking at it.
Non sequitur aside you make a really poor counter-aargument. Your deflections continue.
Do you actually believe that is true? Or just for those that meet certain political objectives?
Can you actually prove that anyone in that picture is illegal?
Sean – They might be dreaming but they are NIGHTMARES . . . to American citizens.
Hardly. It’d be jail time. Jail without television, jail without college courses, jail without decent food, jail wherein the guards do not hesitate to beat gringos.
In American you can march and say whatever you want. We let ignorant racists shout about “Jews” while carrying tiki torches. You have a problem with them too?
Somebody needs to explain irony to you.
Why don’t you give it a shot kiddo
Euphemisms replaced descriptive vocabulary in efforts to construct a new reality.
In the case of your assertion, “euphemism” is a euphemism. What the Lib-Leftists tell are lies, not “euphemisms.”
VDH’s book “Mexifornia” from 2004 is a great read of the problems and issues in the central valley of CA.
Naturally, minors should not be penalized for the transgressions of their parents.
They shouldn’t be rewarded for it either. Not giving them something they aren’t entitled to isn’t a penalty. Per your silly argument, every minor on the planet should get to stay as long as their parents can get them here. If we applied this logic to any other aspect of our legal system, we’d be overrun with crime. It’s silliness that needs to stop.
The children of bank robbers must be allowed to keep the money their parents steal. It’s only fair, and it’s for the children! Besides, we have Congress as the model for that already, in so many ways.
You just compared a felony with a misdemeanor where nothing was stolen in the misdemeanor example. You clearly have no understanding of this issue
Nothing was stolen? So if 100 million illegals came in, that wouldn’t change your story – you’d welcome them with open arms, they wouldn’t be stealing jobs and services from American citizens, right? Right?
It’s already closer to 30 million illegals. Are we or are we not a nation of LAWS? You have no understanding that a society MUST be built on the rule of law if it is to continue to exist and prosper in an honorable and predictable manner.
You preach about rule of law yet fail to grasp how idiotic your initial example was. You compared a bank robbery to a misdemeanor and asked whether the children of the bank robber gets to keep the loot. What tangible “loot” do illegals steal? Let me help you out there- nothing. Everything you claimed they “steal” is only speculation. And thankfully we are a nation of laws. Laws that protect citizens and non-citizens alike from the ignorant ravings of the uninformed and possibly racist.
My wife was a LEGAL immigrant and now a proud American Citizen. I speak fluent Spanish. Your intimation that I am a racist is a despicable slander – but that’s exactly what I have come to expect from people like you.
I said “possibly”. You claim to be fluent in two languages yet couldn’t grasp that fine detail. I guess even the implication that the racist assertion could be legit really hit home. That speaks volumes.
Your comments on this thread to both me and others shows your true colors. Eres un pendejo traidor. And you are just a troll. And a weasel, who likes to use weasel words. Your inability to face up squarely to the issue and instead to rely on little twists and turns of language, parsing the smallest detail to distort things, shows that you are not an honest person and cannot be trusted.
Resorting to name calling I see. A really good indication that you have nothing more of substance to provide to the conversation and are becoming overly defensive. It also shows your inability to argue the facts. Thanks for playing.
“Thanks for playing”…you think you’re being cute and clever but it shows that YOU are the one who cannot face the facts – our laws are meant to be obeyed. The ones who are at fault are the parents, who broke laws first by bringing the children in and then by staying here, and illegally laying claim to jobs and services they are not entitled to, and that we taxpayers have had to subsidize.
Many of them have had years to remedy their law-breaking but they chose – THEY CHOSE – to continue to break the laws. That makes it even worse.
If you think any other country in the world would be as lax as we have been about immigration laws, you are really, really ignorant. That’s not name-calling, it’s just a fact.
Our laws protect citizens and non-citizens alike. It has been like that for over 125 years. So be happy that we live in a land of laws because they protect everyone, even those who claim to love them so much yet don’t understand them. That is also a fact. And congrats on not calling names this time. Proud of you.
Our laws prescribe punishment for anyone who breaks them – ANYONE, citizen or not – and they prescribe punishment, fines and/or deportation for non-citizens who break the immigration laws. But you clearly do not believe that should be the case in spite of what you say. You do not seek to uphold our laws, but to bend them for a certain class of people – people who aren’t citizens, who knowingly and willingly came here illegally, and who in many cases persisted in that illegal behavior for years and years. Shame on you.
You want to talk about the law? I took an oath to uphold the constitution. The constitution provides protection for illegal citizens and citizens. it has been this way for over a 125 years. Our laws both protect and punish. So please, don’t pretend you know the law. You will just embarrass yourself (again).
That oath that I also took, says “…I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…” and you, sir, appear to be trying to show that the “domestic” part applies to you…
I’m not embarrassed at all to be on the right side – the lawful side, the honest side, on the side of American citizens and not on the side of illegal lawbreakers.
“It has been like that for over 125 years”
What was it like for the other 117 years this country has been a sovereign nation?
Case law exists for a reason. Not familiar with the term I see
That’s a dodge. Answer the question.
I did. I see you have no idea what I am talking about. I guess I’ll have to dumb this down for you. Case law is the interpretation of laws through higher courts. I never said that these protections existed since the formation of the country. It took decades of legal interpretation for these protections to become law. Make sense kiddo?
I think it is more intellectually honest to say, “Do you know what you are talking about?” In the United States, the law is derived from five sources: constitutional law, statutory law, treaties, administrative regulations, and the common law (which includes case law).
You wrote: “Our laws protect citizens and non-citizens alike. It has been like that for over 125 years.”
Our constitution was ratified in 1787. I simply asked you what was the law for the previous 117 years. Get it Σκάφος?
Accurate description is not name-calling. You seek the typical evasion of the lying Lib pervert.
It is not name calling to identify someone correctly and kudo’s for a using another language that you may or may not have understood.
Well done! Trolling me in another conversation that you had no part of. I must have gotten under your skin big time. Thanks, I appreciate the follow. I always have time for my fans.
What delicious irony. A troll calling someone else a troll on the same discussion thread.
Thanks for not refuting anything I said. I tell you what, so that there are no hard feelings, send me your email address and I’ll send you an autograph so you can show all your friends who you troll. I’m glad I was able to make your day!
I can’t recall you saying anything that was worth my time to refute. I prefer to let those who are encumbered by ignorance to display it fully. Can you write?
And I can’t recall why I waste my time talking to idiots. We’re done here, sorry to break your heart.
Then stop talking to yourself!
STFU you piece of garbage.. you are a dishonest douchebag who pretends not to understand the implications of illegal immigration in the United States.. fwiw, i lived in the US for a decade , both on F-1(student visa) and H1-B(workers visa) and never felt i was entitled to a damn thing… My blood literally boils when i see these illegals act with such impunity while hard working folks on H1-B visas wait year upon year to get their Green Cards
I personally know of highly skilled technical workers who waited patiently for 8 years and more to get their Green Cards -why was this the case ? the legal system of immigration in the US restricts the number of Green Cards given out in a year to citizens of particular countries in Asia, even though the workers who apply for the most employment based Green Cards ( NOT family status) are from India and China
And here you have you morons from LatAm that are openly boastful of their illegal status and DEMAND citizenship as a reward for their illegal acts – if these bozos ever tried to pull this stunt any where else they would get immediately jailed and consequentially deported to the hellholes they crawled out
If Donald Trump/GOP cave on DACA because they received funding for some border wall that the Mexican gangbangers are going to get around by building more underground tunnels, it will be the end of America as the world knows it
I don’t seem to remember you being a part of this conversation- but way to prove my last point. Beginning your argument with instant name calling really screams “competent adult capable of civil dialogue.” You aren’t worth more than this tiny response because, as you made clear, you opinion is childish and insignificant.
You just proved why you are garbage.. you could not address ANY of the points that i made about the immigration system in your country. i did’nt promise any civility did i ? don’t expect me to be civil to those morons like you who openly support illegal immigration..
also you are only interested in your own monologue as i can see THROUGHOUT this thread ,so its a joke if any one thought you were capable of actual dialogue.
I have to pay taxes to support these illegal immigrants – so to the extent that my tax money is being diverted from US citizens to these illegal immigrants, they are stealing money from Americans.
The Dreamers have paid over 2 billion in taxes. Thanks for playing
Actually estimates suggest approximately $11.6B. There’s an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., and that $11.6 billion comes to about $1,050 per illegal which equates to less than half the lowest tax state that pays on average $2850. Illegal immigrants in fact absorb far more in benefits than they
contribute. Illegals
contribute an average of $10,000 in total taxes (federal and payroll as
well as local taxes) but use almost $24,000 in welfare and services,
creating a net $14,000 per capita gain per illegal worker.
So, 1952 is correct.
I said Dreamers, not all illegals. Reading, it’s important.
Putting aside your juvenile snark I want to thank you for putting even more emphasis on my data points and for further validating 1952rmdg’s point. We, the people, carry a heavy load on behalf of Mexicans who do not appreciate the gracious hearts and open wallets of the American people.
Wow sounds like you have it rough with the burden you place on yourself to care for everyone. I don’t like where my taxes go either, but I don’t act like an a**hole and demonize those in need.
-Have you ever built a home for a poor Mexican family? I have.
-Have you ever taken in a Mexican and his family? I have.
-Have you ever employed a Mexican and paid them more than the going wage? I have.
-Have you ever been on a Mission to a Spanish speaking Central American country to help the children in their orphanage? I have.
Now you tell me again who is an a**hole?
Oh, I never called you an a**hole. I said I don’t act like one. I also don’t have to display my good deeds to defend that I’m not one. If you actually did those things then it is good to hear. How you can hate the illegals after actually doing such deeds is indeed a mystery, though.
When you say you don’t act like one you are implicitly implying the person you are addressing is. It’s your own hate that impacts your thinking. At no time have I used the word hate. You seem unable to grasp that many in this country are actually do something for the poor instead of virtue signalling. I am happy to help those who seek to better their life, in their own country. I am from an immigrant family and we did not come here illegally and we did not agitate for benefits before we started contributing to this nation.
Lol who isn’t from an immigrant family? Unless you are Native American that statement is ridiculously stupid.
You have such a big heart for those who are citizens. Such an ignorant statement to state that those who aren’t citizens aren’t trying to better their lives. In that one statement you have shown your complete ignorance to the entire issue. I would appreciate next time you start with that point instead of wasting everyone’s time.
Millions of Americans. There is no such thing as Native Americans that’s a left wing construct used for the purpose of identity politics. I conclude you are another typical shallow thinking progressive.
The more you rely on smears and ad hominem attacks your weak argument becomes even weaker.
I don’t think anyone really feels that Mexicans are bad people, in general. However, that doesn’t give them an excuse for just coming here as they please – paying smugglers thousands of dollars – and they know it’s illegal when they do it – they just don’t care. They don’t care about the people who have paid thousands of dollars in immigration fees and waited their turn. I think most would agree they are very nice people — but when you have millions whose children are now Demanding that we cater to them, that’s where the sympathy ends.
“I don’t think anyone really feels that Mexicans are bad people, in general.”
I concur with that statement wholeheartedly however; given their barbarian mentality after centuries of Mexican cultural dysfunction they deserve pity and empathy, but no amnesty nor citizenship until they do what all aspiring immigrants do and petition for the right to live here and become an assimilated citizen while getting in line like all others do.
Idiot.
They steal social security numbers or they are on welfare. Either way, they are taking tangible goods from American citizens. Thought experiment for you. I bring an illegal over to your house and declare that you must allow him to live there. How long before you call the police? What tangible good has the illegal taken from you?
You are making a blanket allegation that they all steal. This shows your ignorance and possibly racism. Mostly it shows your inability to provide tangible evidence to support your claim. Thanks for playing
You’re an idiot.
I favor familial reunification — but reunification on the correct side of the border.
If they have lived here their entire lives, this is the correct side of the border.
No, it’s not. If they lived here their entire life illegally they are on the wrong side of the border. That is abiding by the rule of law.
Not if they were brought here by their parents at no fault of their own. 90% of Americans believe this to be true. And the rule of law is what allows them to stay here currently. Oops.
No they do not believe it to be true they believe we should find a workable solution that benefits our country. DACA is not rule of law it’s an executive order.
Actually it isn’t even an EO. However, EO’s carry the rule of law with them. This memo does the same. It survived SCOTUS review as well. So ya, it is the law.
Wrong.
-In 2016 the Supreme court tied 4-4 essentially overturning Obama’s E.O.
-In 2017 Supreme court ruled 5-4 that E.O. unconstitutional. it was a lower court judge who overruled and this is expected to be overturned by the Supremes, again.
Lol damn, your ignorance is just funny at this point. A tied SCOTUS ruling doesn’t overrule the memo (not an EO, look it up). It keeps the lower court’s ruling. Keep it up though, highly entertaining.
“A Supreme Court tie all but kills Obama’s plans to protect millions of immigrants
A 4-4 split is a huge defeat for the White House.”
https://www.vox.com/2016/6/23/11916632/united-states-texas-daca-dapa
Yup, I got a big laugh about that too. Thanks, Ezra!
“A split decision effectively upholds the ruling of the lower court (presumably a state supreme court).”
In a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court rebuffed Judge Alsup’s effort to review internal documents.
The Supreme Court has reversed Judge Alsup’s outlandish rulings on DACA before. And it will do so again.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/455305/daca-court-ruling-trump-cant-end-daca
The last resort of the truly ignorant is calling other’s ignorant for using facts instead of emotion.
He’s a Lib halfwit.
If you have a minor in the USA born here whose parents are elsewhere, that child belongs with his parents.
Sorry, 95% of Americans voted for Bush or Obama so we must take responsibility for our mistakes and make things right. Next time don’t vote for a guy whose political heir is Mexican.
If the DACA “Dreamers”, illegals all, are allowed to stay, what is to keep a future Democrat-controlled Congress from rolling back whatever restrictions the current Congress might impose on them? No matter what is proposed now, future Congresses are not bound by it, and if there’s one thing you can count on, a Democrat-controlled Congress is capable of anything that would make today’s rules null and void.
Sure…everyone of them would slither down the border…for a photo op…of tearing down the wall. Reagan thought he was getting meaningful enforcement provisions back in ’86….and here we are 30 million illegals later…Both parties and every President since Bush 1 has made this a reality…
Outstanding.
As usual.
“Naturally, minors should not be penalized for the transgressions of their parents.”
Please tell me, aren’t the children and the families of criminals penalized when they are sent to jail ? Per your reasoning, we should not punish / jail those criminals lest we penalize their children or families.
And do not begin to tell me that entering and staying in the country illegally is ‘only’ a misdemeanor. To stay in the country, the illegal aliens become CRIMINALS by using forged papers or using stolen identities, not to mention any other crimes they may be committing – driving without license or insurance, drug dealing, etc.
So let’s deport the parents who broke our laws and if family is so important to them, they can take their children back with them.
If the ‘children’ want to stay, after extreme vetting and proving that they can support themselves legally, they could receive a special visa that allows them to remain but that would keep them from receiving any type of welfare for a number of years (no less than 5) and from EVER becoming citizens. And NO chain migration. If they want to see their families, they can travel to visit them on vacation.
This is not intended to be mean but to reduce the enticement and motivation of minor immigration.
Some of those “children” are now as old as 40 years. Average age is 25 years. Another false narrative from the MSMDNC.
It is a misdemeanor. You wanting to add fictional crimes to them as a whole does not make it a bigger crime. Individually perhaps, but you would have to apply that differently, and it would kill your narrative. Breaking up families because of a misdemeanor is ridiculous. They present no threat to our society and most are contributing members. No one is buying the false narrative that you want them gone because they “broke” the law.
Generally criminal families break themselves up due to extreme cultural dysfunction that led to crime in the first place. A large percentage of Mexican immigrants are here illegally (estimates vary from 41 to 75%) and commit a large percentage of the crimes that are committed by immigrants and among the general population. To wit:
According to the FBI, criminal gangs –
in some regions comprised significantly of illegal aliens – are wreaking
havoc in the U.S., with 65 jurisdictions nationwide reporting
gang-related offenses committed with firearms account for at least 95
percent of crime in those areas.
The FBI further documented gangs in Southwestern border regions
consisting of up to 80 percent illegal aliens were committing a
multitude of crimes in America, “including drug-related crimes, weapons
trafficking, alien smuggling, human trafficking, prostitution,
extortion, robbery, auto theft, assault, homicide, racketeering, and
money laundering.”
How is this a false narrative?
Most terrorists are white, christian males who were born in the US. See how easy it is to cherry pick facts to support your narrative?
Deflection, irrelevant, and incorrect. This is the typical response from someone who cannot defend their argument with a cogent and factual rebuttal.
As stated by the one who just did what they are accusing. Sorry that my response killed your argument.
Hey, you halwit, ignoramus liar – reentry after deportation is a FELONY and most of the illegals have re-entered.
Most of their “families” are already “broken up,” dummy – they have lousy family values.
Illegal immigration presents an enormous threat to our society on several levels.
Very few illegals are “contributing members” of American society – by far, they are takers.
Oh but don’t you know they ‘need these illegal documents’ so that they can work and support their family. They’re really not doing anything illegal you see because it’s only to help ‘the children.’ We are seriously the most stupid country in the world.
VDH’s strongest statement to date on immigration.
A repetition of statements made numerous times by others long ago – no insights.
The truth cannot be restated too frequently.
Being such a military authority, how could Hanson miss what the Democrats have actually done with the SCHUMER SHUTDOWN?
The Democrat Party has turned it’s back on The U.S. Military in favor of about 1 million illegal immigrants, whom they are banking and campaigning on becoming loyal, straight Democrat ticket voters!
THIS is The American Democrat Party of 2018.
THE Party of patriotic traitors to America’s military soldiers and all their families.
Hanson is right: It’s not mindless boosterism.
It’s mindless BOOMERISM.
Hanson is good, as far as he goes. But he refuses to break with the NeoCons who are pushing a lot of this open borders crap, nor will he name them or question their motives.
The cognitive dissonance must be killing him. Shame, because he would be a powerful ally if he would only read Culture of Critique.
Meh. I like him. He’s no libertarian, but he’s a good ally in the fight against socialism, and he’s right far more often than he’s wrong. America is the new empire, and to pretend that we’re still the republic is counter-productive.
He comes from a humanities background – no rigorous reality – only ideological delusions.
The emotional need of the average leftist to call somebody a ____ist or ____phobe on a daily basis should not be underestimated. They are people who willfully abandoned all objective and/or enduring measures of what is good vs bad. Their only reference point from which to feel like good people is the moment of sanctimonious virtue signaling ecstasy when they pronounce themselves better than someone else based on their own bigoted stereotypes. The irony of it is completely lost on them In the same way that children lack self-awareness.
It really is true. I like the term (not mine) “Selma envy”. We really are an amazing country: one where race and sex and religion etc, don’t matter in the eyes of the law. I’m not sure people realize how unique that is in the history of mankind. We’ve made mistakes, no doubt. But so has everyone, and the fact is that America is the least most prejudiced place on the planet. But, if you want to be seen as a martyr, a true Social Justice Warrior, well then, you need an injustice to fight. Let’s see: everybody can vote now, nobody is property of a master or a husband, and gay people can join us all in wedded misery. So what’s a SJW to do? Why, find racism and sexism and homophobia where none exist. Thus, they go forth bravely to slay the paper tiger.
My brother says this more simply. Little kids play games with invisible monsters because it’s more exciting than games with invisible other kids who maybe have different candy preferences or something.
Leftists do NOT care about these people – they are pawns. And guess what? Our sentimentality and compassion for illegal aliens has ended. There are about 20 million who just think it’s ok to come here because of some gang in their neighborhood that is for sure ‘going to kill’ them or that they just can’t make a living..
Brown people breaking laws provide opportunities for leftists to call white people racists. Simple as that. That’s what the left wants.
Bravo! A return to form for VDH. His columns have had too much Trump a$$ licking lately but this column only has some of that by omission.
So VDH should have explained why Trump’s advocacy for immigrants from Hitler’s favorite country exhibited a lack of knowledge of this issue. We should have an immigration policy like MIT’s or CalTech’s admission policy—best and brightest and COLORBLIND. Unlike Mexico we should not care about sustaining our current demographics and unlike Harvard’s admissions we shouldn’t care about adding diversity to America.
The only thing I will add is that with regard specifically to Dreamers 95% of Americans voted for Bush or Obama so there is “blood” on all of our hands. Let’s do the right thing and take responsibility for our mistakes (the immigration policies of Bush and Obama) and pass a DACA bill.
These dreamers are cultural and political garbage. They add to the storehouse of ignorant voters that already support the Democrats-blacks, millennials, the dead and the criminals. They do not share our values, language or politics. We do not want or want or need them. Send them back COD
I have faith in our assimilation machine although the recent statistic about soccer being more popular than baseball among young Americans is concerning. Although I am huge baseball fan and 162 regular season games are just too much in the age of Netflix.
Assimilation is a myth.
that is untrue. after two maybe three generations at the very most immigrants are fully american. havent you observed?
On TV, yes – in reality, no.
To prove your point, a couple of months ago, PBS had a program on “America in the 1950s,” and one of the things that was noted was that, having had very little immigration since the mid 1920s, as the program stated, “Americans were among the most united that they had ever been in our nation’s history.” The waves of immigrants who had arrived prior to the 1920s and their descendants had had time to fully assimilate so that there was very little ethnic tension – most people considered themselves to be Americans even if their ancestors came from Italy, Russia, Ireland, wherever. Of course after the 1965 Immigration Act was passed, this unity has gradually been eroding.
Why is it acceptable for the leftists in academia, Hollywood, and the Democratic Party to welcome illegal aliens because they aren’t white but it’s racist for others to question how these huge inflows will affect our culture and our way of life? My sense is the real racists are leftists and the latinos who breaking into our country.
Appropriate enough money to build the wall, end chain migration, end the immigration lottery, and enforce e-verify first. Only after these items are implemented can be sit down and discuss what to do with those who are here.
It sickens me that there are groups of Americans who put the selfish interests of illegal aliens ahead of the interests and desired of their own countrymen and women. The leftists are empowering groups of non-citizens to challenge our system and make demands on our people.
What the leftists are doing is a dangerous game that will lead to extreme violence. If the leftists believe Americans will give up without a fight they are sadly mistaken.
I married my wife in mainland China and brought her here as a Lawful Permanent Resident. We now also have her adult daughter and will soon have HER husband and daughter. (My son-in-law and grand-daughter.) Of course, that took eight years and we can argue about the “chain” of it later. (Although there will be no more.) The point here is that my wife studied her tail off for three years so that she could become a citizen. My step-daughter is working and also studying to improve her English. Sure they’re proud of their Chinese cultural heritage, but they’re here to be AMERICANS. Their loyalty is to the U.S. and they are and will be contributors instead of takers. (BTW, my son-in-law is a stock-broker in China. He should be of interest to an American firm, so he’ll be a contributor too.)
If you think YOU don’t like the illegal mess, you should see it from the point of view of lawful immigrants who are grateful to be here.
And I would bet any money that you don’t go around and wave the Chinese Communist flag at every chance.
Oh Gawd, No! My wife’s family suffered some serious persecution at the hands of the Commies in the 1950’s. Sure, we put up lanterns for Chinese New Year and the Moon Festival, but she is proud to travel on a U.S. Passport. Interestingly, whenever we visit China, the authorities can easily see that she was born in China, but when they see that blue passport, they treat her with so much more respect than when her passport was brown.
I understand completely. My family was well off before WWII, then the communists took everything. We arrived here with only the clothes on our backs back when it was the policy of US that alien residents receive zero government assistance.
And I’ll bet your family was glad to be here, anyway, and then made a life here. Zero government assistance is still policy. When you sponsor an alien, you sign an agreement that YOU will be on the hook for reimbursement of any public assistance the alien ever receives. The only things that terminate that agreement are death or the alien becoming a naturalized citizen.
Easy solution to the entire problem.. and won’t cost the US one single cent.. cut the money off and they will all leave on their own. No wall, no laws, no enforcement, etc. .needed. Take away the ONLY reason they are here – MONEY. PERIOD. Not ONE politician has the guts to do it this one simple solution. Without funding of any kind – welfare or otherwise – they would not even leave their home country in the first place.
Let’s clear up one massive misunderstanding about so-called “Dreamers”. Deportation would NOT unfairly penalize them for the transgressions of their parents. No! No! No! Rather, the benefits and advantages (at taxpayer expense) that were illegally obtained by their parents would be rescinded and reclaimed by the State on behalf of its citizen taxpayers. In other words, the children of bank robbers do NOT get to keep the money. The entire premise of DACA is absurd on its face and an affront to law abiding citizens.
Build the Welfare State and….. they shall come.
Yes – “minors should not be penalized for the transgressions of their parents.” Neither should they be rewarded for the transgressions of their parents. We do not let the children of bank robbers keep the loot their fathers stole, do we?
Democrats and rinos do
another magnificent article from one of America’s greatest literary treasures
The solution is complex, but one step would be to create a new class of resident. Right now we have citizens, permanent resident aliens and illegal aliens. The legal resident aliens are eligible to apply for naturalization after five years. Add another class of temporary working resident aliens that are not eligible to apply for naturalization. Instead, make them eligible to apply for permanent residency after another period (possibly five years or more), and make that application mandatory to be applied for in their own country. Combine this with true enforcement of E-verify and no welfare.
Not gunna happen. There’s no point in expecting fantasies to come true.
Thank you for defending the essence of our Republic.
I think people overlook the influence of many billionaire open border globalists to change immigration policy. For example, the Sierra Club at one time focused partly on the burden immigration placed on our environment and was in favor of zero immigration. In 2006 billionaire David Gelbaum gave the sierra club a 100 million dollar donation on the one condition they never mention immigration and the environment ever again. they too his money and are such an obedient tool for the open border globalist that Gelbaum has given them over 200 million.
Democrats used to have sane immigration policy as late as 1995. After then globalist bought both parties and the media. Until those pushing massive third world immigration for profit, power and punishment are made to suffer for their actions it will be impossible to change the transformation that is happening to the west.
The Sierra Club was once sane as well – they were circumspect conservationists. Then, the marxist perverts infiltrated and took over.
Some of your comments reprinted below question whether you think about a subject and then write about it, or simply write about it and maybe later, much later, you think about it.
Such as:
“The System is “Broken”
Broken for whom exactly? Not for Mexico and Latin America. Together they garner $50 billion in annual remittances. The majority of such transfers are likely sent from illegal aliens.” YOU HAVE NO IDEA OR PROOF OF ANY KIND WHERE THE $50 BILLION IS SPECIFICALLY COMING FROM, DO YOU?
“The immigration system is also clearly not broken for the Democratic Party. It has turned California blue. It soon will do the same to Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico, and someday may flip Arizona and Texas.” MAYBE IF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OFFERED ANY POLICIES THAT APPEALED TO THOSE IMMIGRANTS THEY MIGHT GARNER A FAIR AMOUNT OF SUPPORT FROM THEM.
“If immigrants from Mexico came in measured numbers, legally, with high-school diplomas, and along with diverse immigrants from all over the world, then rapid assimilation and integration would soon render them politically individuals, not tribes.” HOW MANY OF OUR ANCESTORS INCLUDING IRISH, ITALIAN, RUSSIAN JEWISH OR ANY OTHERS ENTERED AMERICA WITH HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMAS?
THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH PARTISAN OPINIONS EXCEPT WHEN THE ARGUMENTS ARE BASED ON ADHERENCE TO PRECONCEIVED NARRATIVES WITHOUT ANY ATTENTION TO EASILY OBSERVABLE FACTS. THAT BEHAVIOR IS RESERVED FOR THE MAJORITY OF COMMENTERS WHO POST ON THIS PAGE.
Why have laws if you don’t require following them or upholding them?
It doesn’t make sense to compare immigration from 100-150 years ago with today’s situation and laws. False equivalency.
There was NO law then and there is NO law now requiring immigrants to enter with HS diplomas. Until there is a lw like that it is just a wish, an opinion, not a law. Try again.
No law against determining who gets to come here and who does not. There is a law against wandering in illegally. We get to choose who, if we are smart.
So, we should perpetuate the mistake? You’re a genuine imbecile.
Your comments are ridiculous. They are ultra picky as in who cares where exactly the $50 billion is coming from as surely part of it comes from illegals. The policy argument fails because all you are referring to is for the GOP to adopt the socialist policies of the Dems which are destroying this nation. And finally, concerning past immigrants without a high school degree, have you not noticed that we live in different times and that a certain minimal level of education is absolutely necessary for finding ones place in the economic system. You really are simply a clueless shill for the Dems.
Obviously neither you nor the professor care whether a decla
Obviously neither you nor the professor care whether a statment is factual or not, but some of us reading that statement would be comforted to know that what they are reading is SOMEWHAT accurate, not a wild guess.
You and Hanson have decided that you really don’t want the votes from any immigrants since that would be applying ‘socialist’ policies. SAD! For some immigrants you are correct, but the vast majority of immigrants will end up in various agricultural jobs, entry level hotel & restaurant positions and homecare for senior citizens, which do not require HS diplomas. BTW, most of the above jobs native born citizens will not do. Then what? BTW, your comment was rational and direct, right up until your last little bout of ‘name calling’ which made you look small & silly. You can do better, so do it without the nonsense.
You prove yourself an idiot — as always.
And you constantly prove that most of your responses to any comments you disagree with are fact free and consist of namecalling and childish insults. Too bad!
That sign says it all. These people just don’t get it. They are not the future, they are part of the future and that is a huge difference. Like the progressives who taught them what to say they really believe their own BS. That is one reason Obama’s line” we are the ones we have been waiting for fell flat on it’s face when his real political policies started taking effect. So many Obama voters were disappointed that they voted for Trump over Clinton.
You’re a muddle-head. The Obama voters who voted for Trump didn’t like Hillary because they were for Sanders – the hard-core socialist.
I wish my President was as articulate and encyclopedic as thinkers such as George Will and Dr. Hanson. Both have recently written on the eternal fiasco of US immigration policy. The root problem is not whether the Dreamers are a cohort of Boy and Girl Scouts, vs MS -13 torturers; It is the choice between the rule of law vs. the law of the jungle, the choice between buying into a lie, or not. The great human evil is that our leaders are the liars and thieves, the young non Americans are simply pawns in a demonic power struggle. Uncle Sam is the lying crook. This condition is not survivable, for the Dreamers, or us.
The immediate problem was inelegantly defined by President Trump; these people come from “s*#t hole nations”.
Definitions and the rule of law are vital for civilization. Some big shot, long ago, with a sharp sword,arbitrarily declared that my foot defined a measure of length, my thumb joints defined an inch, this is the border to my nation, and if you fight me on this, I will kill you. Ever since then, people could measure things and know which country they lived in.
We have lost the clarity and the whiners are gaining power. Some like more votes, others like cheap dope, still others like hiring slaves. All give away our money and future for personal gain.
We need a wall around Capital Hill, porn businesses in LA, some violent areas in our cities, and many drug dens. My President needs to make a deal with sturdy honest illegal immigrants: Here is a ham sandwich, an M-16 and a cell phone. Go home and fill up the hole with the bodies of your bad guys. If they have 1,000 tough guys, I will organize you and send 50,000 of you killers, at a timing and place our choosing. As we train you for that happy day, my State Dept will give notice to the bad guys, run or die.
America will either solve problems or cease to exist.
Trump is a Liberal & Progressive huckster. He has already said he is for legitimizing the DACAs and wants a “path to citizenship” for them. His policy towards the other illegals is identical to Obama’s – he is targeting the felons only and protects the rest.
Uncle Sam has been painted into a corner purposefully; it happened long ago. It is political technique No 34, increase the pain and they will fold. Trump’s options are lousy due to Ted Kennedy’s lying. Depending on your religious beliefs, Ted may be frying, in the s. hole, at this moment.
A terrible decision faces Uncle Sam. He made one on June 6, 1944, ordered 10,000 guys to run across a beach. None made it. But their sacrifice saved our nation.
Life is hard. A kind surgeon cuts deep. Yes. Trump is a huckster, but a mean one.
This will infuriate liberals. America is their enemy, and any not-America is their friend.
Let’s make them citizens, but like felons, they cannot vote or own weapons. The Democrats would drop them like a hot potato.
In many state felons can vote. Keeping weapons from ANY residents of the USA will get the NRA really mad.
Baloney.
Why do these mythologies abound? Largely because Americans, the hosts, either cannot anymore even define their
own civilization to would-be immigrants, or are so intimidated that they are terrified to even try.
In my experience, listening to Liberals, all of that which VDH terms “mythologies” are fervently believed as facts by Liberals, and those same Liberals see open borders and a welfare state for everyone being “right”. That drives how they vote.
“Illegal immigration” or “illegal immigrant” are incorrect terms. All immigrants are legal, otherwise you can not enter. Trust me, I was one before.
They should be called “illegal alien”. Alien means foreign, not a derogative term. I was a legal alien before I became a citizen.
Hanson is a racist A-hole
Richard Ault: The pinnacle of intellectual thought on the Left.
Here we are, chatting so enjoyably, because only 10% or so of Mexico’s population has decided to make their homes north of the border. Americans, including most journalists and politicians, are oblivious to what is happening in Mexico itself. Five Mexican states are so chaotic and lawless that they have been placed on the same no-go list the State Dept maintains for zhitholes like Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Mali. In July an Hugo-Chavez-like far-left crazy man will win the election to the presidency and impose the policies that burned the Venezuelan economy to the ground on our southern neighbor, setting off a rush for the exits. Our border will soon resemble the border between Syria and Turkey. We will have a madman to the south egging on our own Stalinists here in a way that Castro never could. A Wall? There might still be enough will to survive left in this country, but I doubt it.
There is so much wrong and innuendo with this article that I don’t even no where to start. Uh first, latin America is more ethnically diverse than United States thinks or realizes. Blacks are certainly not looked down upon in Brazil. Why would Hansen say something that is demonstrably not true? Because it reinforces the ethnic prejudice of the Trump base. I could point out the various points where he is wrong, like America contributing to the remittances back to Latin America (immigrants pay taxes but cannot get benefits – this is a net plus for the USA) or point out that Hansen depends on immigrants to pick his raisons. Without which he would be just another right wing con without any viable means of support.
Here is an interesting fact. The states that support and tolerate immigration, have higher GDP and are more productive than areas of the country that do not. So when should the blue makers stop supporting the red takers?
Those states, like California and Washington, have outliers that skew GDP upward due to output and reward of high technology. Get rid of Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and like companies from those states, and you have Haiti.
Get rid of Walmart and what does Arkansas have? Oh yea… Walmart…
You are wrong about Brazil or for that matter Columbia and Venezuela as well. Where there is a substantial population of peoples of African descent there is a lot of racism. https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/05/22/408813624/expats-find-brazils-reputation-for-race-blindness-is-undone-by-reality
Dr. Hansen for Secretary of State!
Just a phenomenal article…
This should be read, verbatim, on every cable news network.
This should be on Prager University.
Lindsey Graham — the vanguard of the RINO Left carrying water for the Dreamers. There must be some way to punish SC for repeatedly inflicting that drawling pantywaist on all of us.
VDH demonstrates the conundrum for conservatives. It’s much more difficult to untangle complex policy with critical thought, fact and reason, than it is to appeal to emotions and tribalism. For dems, if it doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker – it’s a bridge too far.
Dreamers are not “illegal” immigrants. They have committed no crime, and their mere existence is not criminal. When folks like Speaker Ryan and Leader McConnell use that language, they bring shame upon themselves. These people are undocumented, but they are Americans, plain and simple, and deserve to have immediate recognition as full citizens.
What kind of Country is this, anyway?
Without borders we have no country. Why is something so obvious so difficult for so many to understand? Does America even still exist as a country?
Yea, and what does that have to do with a child who was brought here?
Let me answer that for you… Nothing!
Dummy. It quite obviously encourages illegal immigration if people can bring their children here for a better future plus they themselves will most likely be allowed to stay since “we can’t break up a family!”
You’re a good example of why our society has become too stupid to survive. Time will tell what fate has in store for us.
Well, not all of us can trace our American lineage to the Mayflower like the great Flasher family!
They have committed no crime
They have all committed the crime of violating the entry law documented at the link below.
http://immigration.findlaw.com/visas/basic-elements-of-the-border-entry-rules.html
But you knew that.
What, are you daft? Dreamers were brought here as children. They had no control over their circumstance.
You are correct; Dreamers are not illegal immigrants, they are illegal aliens. When you enter a country without legal authorization, you have broken that country’s laws. Please explain how it is possible to be an American citizen as soon as you enter the country illegaly or legally, for that matter. Legal immigrants must apply for naturalization before they can be termed American Citizens.
What kind of county is this? A country which has the right to establish rules and regulations for entering it.
Dreamers didn’t “do” anything. They were brought here as children, and have been living here for most, if not all, of their lives.
I suppose you would charge the kid in the car seat, whose parent was found to have drugs, with possession? You’re not that stupid, are you?
Victor Davis Hanson, you mention 700K to 800K “Dreamers,” yet I have heard/read that the REAL number of “Dreamers” is somewhere close to 3.6 MILLION, and by the time you fold the extended family members into the calculation by way of “Chain Migration,” the TOTAL number EXCEEDS 13 MILLION! When you add this number to the ILLEGAL ALIENS that aren’t being LEGALLY discussed, we can reasonably expect that the TOTAL NUMBER is somewhere in the 30 MILLION range, or 1 out of 10 people we see shopping at Costco or Sam’s Club!
800K is the number who have applied to the program. You are right that that there are many more and that their chains are long.
But, you’re going to have to face reality very soon. The DACAs are going to be legitimized and put on a “path to citizenship.” And, the 30 million illegals are never going to be deported – ere long they’ll be legitimized as well and then the Lib-Leftist will decry their “second-class status” and demand they be given the right to achieve citizenship.
If you think there is snowball’s chance in hell I’m wrong, you’re living in a fantasy land.
I try to always be objective, try to see both sides and all factors of any debate.
When the GOP stops subsidizing crony corps that admittedly employ over 1million illegals w/out green cards, I will listen to the RW argument. Im against any illegal immigration, and for ONLY immigrants who support themselves, and bring us talent and value. This write is purely partisan and leaves out so much that doesnt fit the RW agenda, yet, is in practice everyday, under our noses
The question of border security is finally coming to a head. It’s about time. For a generation, the issue has been buried under an avalanche of distracting side issues. People have forgotten why secure borders are important.
Some have forgotten that Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez and Coretta Scott King all condemned open borders because they suppressed wages and weakened unions. Others don’t know that Abraham Lincolns opposed slavery, in part, because unfree labor suppressed wages. Still others forget that Franklin Roosevelt championed the ideas “that built from the bottom up and not from top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.”
The erosion of pride in America is just one corrosive result of the post-Cold War search for ever-lower wages. The result of this race to the bottom has been millions of displaced people and damage to the fabric of society. Near the end of the Civil War, President Lincoln suggested it was time to “bind up the nations wounds,” that is, to repair the social web that makes the pursuit of happiness possible. The same idea applies now.
It’s simple. Secure the border.
VDH systematically demolishes the pro-immigration lobby’s talking points. Their philosophy is bankrupt and most harmful to our national character. Time to reorient the system towards the good of typical Americans.
The diversity and multicultural ideology is based on a huge distortion of history and is alien to the vast majority of citizens. It can only be maintained by ignoring the wishes of the majority and by increasingly coercive and totalitarian means to silence dissent. This coercion has taken the form of insult and social ostracism in the United States, and in Europe it has been supplemented by civil and criminal sanction against dissenters.
What would great liberal democrats from the past like FDR and JFK have thought of a city like Chicago being a “Sanctuary City” or a state like California being a “Sanctuary State”?
What would they have thought of the Attorney General of California warning employers to not help the federal government deport illegals? What would they have thought about half the country strongly supporting a Democratic Party that quite actively and openly encourages and supports illegal immigration?
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article195434409.html
If we can no longer control our border, are we still a country?
Sen. Schumer and the Democrat party are holding 350 million American citizens hostage for the benefit of 800,000 illegal residents. That is the face of the Democrat party yet they expect to “win” Congress this fall?
I have a Hispanic ( from Peru ) friend at work in Chicago who took a road trip with his family out west a few years ago. They first went to the Grand Canyon and then to see Los Angeles. He said he was surprised to see it was mostly Mexican and looked so poor. No doubt many are illegals. How has this benefitted California?
Los Angeles Times
Jan. 14, 2018
Why is liberal California the poverty capital of America?
By Kerry Jackson
“Guess which state has the highest poverty rate in the country? Not Mississippi, New Mexico, or West Virginia, but California, where nearly one out of five residents is poor. That’s according to the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which factors in the cost of housing, food, utilities and clothing, and which includes noncash government assistance as a form of income.”
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-jackson-california-poverty-20180114-story.html
Unfortunately Wikipedia
How L.A. is turning into a third world city.
By HÉCTOR TOBAR
JULY 6, 2015
LOS ANGELES — A GENERATION ago, this West Coast metropolis became a “third world city.” At least in the rhetoric of certain East Coast thinkers.
As a native of the city, I was offended to hear it tagged with such a denigrating label. But in recent years, and for different reasons, I’ve come to believe that a metropolis of the “developing world,” to use a more polite expression, is being born here.
California has both the most “ultrarich” (people worth more than $30 million) and the worst poverty rate in America. Even though San Francisco recently overtook Los Angeles in ultrarich residents, ostentatious affluence and permanent poverty live side by side here.
Exactly right, Dr. Hanson. And the question is Why? The answer is very easy–the Democrat Party, the source of almost every evil in this country for the past 100 years, if not more.
“It would have made no sense to flee from Italy and expect to live life in America on the premises that an Italian lived in Italy.”
According to The Godfather and to Tony Soprano, Italians did just that. Tony didn’t regard himself as a mobster. He thought that he and the other families were soldiers, his word, protecting Italian Americans from the rejection their parents and grandparents encountered when they came to the US, Catholic immigrants in a Protestant country. The mafia substituted their own law, brought from Italy, for that of the United States. When he’s trying to seduce his psychiatrist who is assimilated, his pitch is to her origins. “C’mon,” he tells her, “You’re an Italian.”
Just adopt Australia’s common sense immigration policy: anyone in the country illegally can NEVER get citizenship.
Period.
If America had common sense this issue would have been resolved long ago. Does America even still exist as a country?
No reason exists any longer to accept any immigrants. When America was new, immigration was welcomed to populate our large land mass to preclude England, France, and Spain from filling the void and claiming territories. Obviously, this is no longer the case. ANY professional deficiencies can be overcome internally through our own education system. No expertise, per se, exists outside of America. Democrats welcome immigrants for one reason only: votes. There is no natural or human right obligating America to permit this unless it is the will of the people. Democrats need better strategies to gain power other than de novo new voters crossing our border.
We need new immigrants but they should be vetted to be sure they’re an asset instead of a drain on the country.
Most of the people I work with are from places like Vietnam, Mexico and Iraq ( Assyrians ). They’re really great people and very much an asset.
We have such huge numbers of horrifyingly dysfunctional people in our society that it’s simply impossible to find native born Americans who are healthy enough, mentally stable enough, skilled enough and smart enough to fill open positions even in a big city like Chicago.
Max, I do not challenge your premise that many foreigners and immigrants are great people. I challenge the premise that America needs immigrants. Cheaper labor (professional or farm hand) are nice for employers to have, but need—no. Salaries, taxes, and benefits in America can all adjust to the current labor pool without any loss in productivity. Hire Americans until ALL have basic human rights, healthcare, and education within our borders.
Maybe these illegals should go back to where they came from and make their countries great. If they believe that they are the future of this country, it only means they’ll destroy America and turn it into the sh*thole countries they came from..
“Yet upon turning 18 apparently, most have made little effort to obtain either green cards or citizenship.”
Duh… they CAN’T! In order to apply for residency, one must apply to a category. Here are some examples: Minor child of US Resident or citizen, Adult child of US Citizen, Parent of US Citizen, Refugee, Investor. Our immigration system IS BROKEN because it is based more on who one is related to than what one can contribute. And hey, if an immigrant applicant speaks fluent English, as though he graduated from a US high school, he gets points in my book.
“just one in 20 dreamers graduated from college”
Perhaps that is because they are INELIGIBLE for federal financial aid, and in many states have to pay out of state tuition. The correct metric is not how many have graduated, but how many over graduation age have graduated anyway. Less than 1% of American citizens age 21 and under have a college bachelor’s degree; get the point?
“One in a 1,000 has served in the military”
Duh, because most of them CAN’T! They have to have a special skill, such as speaking a terrorist language, to get waiver to enlist.
“about eight times more Dreamers have not graduated from high school than have graduated from college.”
That is a misuse of the term, “Dreamers”. In order to qualify for DACA, one MUST have graduated from high school or have a GED or be currently in school. One cannot be a high school drop out and never obtained a GED and have qualified for DACA.
“They are also a fraction of the ignored millions of foreign students from all over the world who seek, often in vain, to study in the United States or are skilled applicants for green cards”
I will take all 700,000 DACAs any day over the millions of half illiterate, unskilled, elderly parents and lazy relatives we are giving permanent residency to now.
I am for upholding the law. I am also for doing what is right. When the law isn’t right, it should be changed. I recognize that Obama’s executive action creating DACA was illegal, and that only Congress can legislate immigration law. Congress needs to do its job and solve the problem.
It is immoral to hold children responsible for the crimes of their parents. It is incompetent for the government to have failed in its duty to promptly repatriate families in the country illegally. Now, we have a generation of people who we raised as Americans, many who know no other home. The morality of allowing childhood arrivals to become US residents and later citizens is the same as having to pay child support for knocking up one’s girlfriend. Mistakes were made, but one must take responsibility for it. The children did not make mistakes, their parents did and the US government did. The children are blameless. Let’s take responsibility and allow them to apply for permanent residency, while increasing border security to reduce the numbers of children this will happen to in the future. And if that means parents and other unskilled and lazy relatives can no longer be sponsored, great! I am all for deporting these parents that violated the law and who put their children in such a position.
I have a young friend who is DACA. She arrived in the US when she was ONE year old. She had no idea she was illegal until she tried to get a drivers license in high school. Think about that for a moment if it were you or maybe if you had to tell your 16 year old, Ameican teenager, that she is an illegal alien. Then she got hit again by learning that made her ineligible for most college financial aid, in spite of her extremely high test scores.
“applicants from Uganda, South Korea”
This DACA friend of mine isn’t Latina. She was born in South Korea (stereotype academically overachieving Asian). Her parents overstayed their visa and never left. If there were an immigration category that she could apply to, she would do it today. Her understanding of Korean is at a 3rd grade level at best. She doesn’t know anyone in Korea and couldn’t function in their society. My friend is the kind of immigrant we WANT anyway. Let’s keep her.
If America is really serious about stopping this uncontrolled immigration, forget the immigration laws and go after the employers.
Latinos don’t come here because they love America, they come for the money and good life (the cheap TV and the abundant food) but in difference to immigrant waves of the past they aren’t being religiously or politically persecuted. Most Latin America (save Cuba and Venezuela ) are, warts and all, democracies and with religious freedom.
Those old immigrants wanted to become Americans the faster the better. Of all Latinos only cubans fit that pattern of the old immigrants which explains why they are mostly republicans.
Latinos (not all) fail to assimilate because they want the money to be able to send to families or retire back in their countries. The reason for the US flag burning is mostly rooted in envy and as escape valve to release the anger they feel for being in the losing end. It makes them feel “ important and powerful for defying the gringos”. It’s stupid, immature, infantile, but that is all there is to it.
Unfortunately, jobs aren’t the only reason they come here. Once here, they avail themselves of schooling, medical and a host of other social benefits and programs.
What would great liberal democrats from the past like FDR and JFK have thought of a city like Chicago being a “Sanctuary City” or a state like California being a “Sanctuary State”?
What would they have thought of the Attorney General of California warning employers to not help the federal government deport illegals? What would they have thought about half the country strongly supporting a Democratic Party that quite actively and openly encourages and supports illegal immigration?
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article195434409.html
Once again … Wow!
Great job Mr. Hanson!
Support the bill Secure America’s Future Act proposed by Raul Labrador and others. It mandates E-verify and some other needed, most importantly the Dreamers doe not get a pathway to citizenship. They may be able to get a legal work permit. They will not be able to vote and flip red states to blue. Email congress to pass this bill.
Hansen gives us lots of fancy words, but at the end we are left with two facts. 1. He suggests no real, workable policy to deal with the complex immigration problem. 2. Many, not most, of the people demanding that illegals be deported are racists.
I work with many Vietnamese, Hispanics and a few Asian Indians who say illegals should be deported. Most are foreign immigrants. Are they racist?
Without borders we have no country. The fact that so many are too stupid to understand something so obvious is one of the reasons why I believe America has already ceased to exist as a country.
first off i am a immigrant , i came here legally in 1998 , me as well as many other legal immigrants i know are for tougher enforcement of immigration laws , border security and deportation of illegal aliens !
Most of the people in my life, both at work and in my neighborhood on the northwest side of Chicago, are foreign immigrants. Not a single one of them approves of illegal immigration. Everyone of them is strongly opposed to illegal immigration. One of the many big lies of the left is that legal immigrants favor illegal immigration.
The left is insane.
you want a workable policy ? i give you a workable policy :
1.) Increase the fines for employers to $1000 per head and up to $10000 per head
2.) restart workplace enforcement and implement a 1-800 number where people can report employers and receive
a $1000 reward if the tip checks out !
3.) Prosecute politicians and law enforcement agents who support and enable sanctuary city policies under 8 US code *1324 section iii and iv , this law prescribes penalties up to 20 years in prison per head for anyone who harbors or shields from detection or attempts to do so , or encourages aliens to reside in or enter the US illegally
4.) Tax all cash remittances to mexico with a rate of 10% , this ammounts to $5B every year in tax revenue that can
be used to finance border security !
5.) Deport criminal illegal aliens and increase the penalties for repeated offenders substantially
6.) institute a guest worker program that requires employers to prove that they cant find american workers
The first problem with the whole DREAM deal is that it is virtually impossible to discern between a lets say 25 year old illegal alien that has been brought here as a child by his parents and a person of the same age that just crossed the border a few days ago , the “beauty ” is that passing the DREAM act now before border security is stepped up will open up the floodgates for young illegal aliens seeking to abuse and game the system by claiming they are DREAMERS !
The second problem you have is that by legalizing 0.8M dreamers you essentially legalize over 7M illegal aliens over the next 12 years !
Here is how this works out : 0.8M dreamers + 1.6M parents + 1.6M siblings + 1.6M Grandparents = 5.6M , shocked now ? it gets worse : since many of those “kids ” are of legal age you can assume that some of them are married or if they are not they may enter into marriage of convenience with other illegal aliens that are not dreamers , if you assume that 0.4M of the dreamers are married than this adds another 0.4M spouses into the mix = 6M total , now of course the spouses can sponsor their parents and siblings which adds another 1.2M into the mix and you end up with 7.2M total !
I think now you understand why democrats just LOVE the dreamers so much
The era of mass immigration of the uneducated and unskilled is over. The American people say “no mas” and demand a pause. The Democrats, who expect Latino immigration to secure an electoral majority, will be crushed if they continue their path of anti-Americanism and anti-white divide and conquer politics. VDH has been sounding the warning for a few decades. Events and the public consensus have caught up with him.
I love Victor Davis Hanson – and if you read his books, he is not anti-illegal immigrant, say like Ann Coulter. He grew up in the farming towns up north. He has in-laws that are Mexican. But he explains in such a non-partisan way as to how the illegal immigrants that cross the border – as migrant workers – at some point become very disenfranchised living in a country that most won’t succeed in. Perhaps their children will, but there is a resentment that grows after a 40 year old immigrant work, doing back-breaking work is broken as he watches the gringo succeed. A lot of what Mexicans and Central Americans expect in the US is a pipe dream. Sure, they make more money here but they will never be respected. They will always be the ‘illegal immigrant’ no matter how hard the Left tries to change the semantics. Hanson is pretty brilliant, because he’s lived it.
That 50 billion dollars sent out of OUR country has a real negative effect on OUR economy
absolutely correct
Take away the Dem’s “emotion” trump card by offering some form of legal status but only to those who signed up for DACA, and NOT give legal status to their
parents (perhaps with the exception of the parents of those who are true
minors before March 5, 2018) — but NONE OF THEM should get VOTING RIGHTS.
This would completely obliterate the false “compassion” nonsense-narrative the Leftists are peddling.
Great essay. Lots of guts. Now you are talking.
It should be noted that if the Dreamers were given citizenship, they would most likely sponsor somewhere between 3 and 7 others from Mexico, Central and South American. Mexicans represent the largest proportion of Dreamers and usually sponsor more people.
We are not talking about 800,000 or so people. With sponsorship, we are looking at millions.
Having lived in Colorado and seen the Mexican flags on car dashboards, I came to interpret this as they were taking back what is there’s to begin with. We were in fact the illegals.
We should also note that the trickle down from drug money into the Mexican economy is significant. Locals in Mexico are bribed and controlled with profits from drugs.
It should also be noted that of 167 nations in the world, there are only 19 Full Democracies and the US is not one of them. It ranks 21. Maybe, we should thank Obama. Mexico is at 67 and considered a Flawed Democracy, just below Sri Lanka.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index
Roundup the illegals and those Dreamers who are really Schemers and have them build the wall. Leave a few bricks out, so when it is done, we can send them south. Send Pelosi and Brown with them.
There is a phrase “the child does not ay for the sins of the father” but do we let the children of bank robbers keep what their father has stolen? NO! Then why do we want to let the children of illegals become citizens or permanent residence? Was that something not stolen by their parents? It is a problem between their parents and them! The USA does not owe them anything, they got free education and other public benefits. It is time to let them return to their country or pay the price their parents should have paid!!!
Here is the reality of the Trump-described “shietholes.” The appellation refers essentially to the government of these land masses because the government decides rather or not the place is a shiethole. If the government is totalitarian, corrupt, exploitative, etc. can pretty much guarantee the place will be one.
Now who among the populace is responsible for such a government? Not the masses. They’re just the poor, wretched, enslaved victims. The ELITE is responsible, the small cartel of privileged citizens who have installed the despotic government so that they can use it to plunder the country. THEY get the education, money, benefits. etc. required to make themselves minimally presentable for exportation. Despite the hysteria of the lunatic media, US government stooges, etc, these are the people Trump is deservedly insulting when he calls countries shietholes – not the nation as a whole.
And guess what? The elites running these shietholes HAVE to export a portion of their membership in order to sustain the trauma. There are only government jobs to be had and degrees in civilized fields are next to useless in these countries. The reality is when the US takes in the elite overflow of these shietholes, it is not taking in people in search of freedom and opportunity. It is taking in the absolute scum of the earth, devils in every way, contaminating the body politic with their godforsaken views about desirability of despotic, enslaving government, and sustaining and prolonging the suffering of the masses in these countries. And this is exactly what the globalist politicians promoting these immigration policies want.
I think I’ve had it with the dreamers, Obama didn’t have the right to circumvent existing laws and give amnesty, you’ve had the time to become citizens. If that didn’t fit your schedule, then go home to Mexico, San Salvador, Nicaragua or wherever else you or your parents came from originally. This isn’t a free ride, you pay as you go……just like I do. Although I blame you I blame our government more, with the likes of Pelosi, Feinstien, Boxer, Waters and many others. Immigration is a broken systems and it’s time to right the wrongs. I’m tired of reading about the beautiful girl in San Francisco that was killed by a multi faceted criminal and then let free, even after he admitted killing her. This caused by an inept DA and colossal nimrods Diane Fienstien and Gavin Newsom. Then there’s Alarcon-Nunez that has so far been implicated in the rape of at least four college coeds from San Luis Obispo, but there may be more. Of course he’s an illegal alien who was deported in 2005 and here illegally now commiting more crimes by virtue of slipping through the system. I could go on with more examples of murder, rapes, robberies and illegal activities and not even touch on on gangs like MS13, cartels, sex trafficking plus other crimes. So you “Dreamers,” that take the time to read this and have got this far, clean up your own backyard while we citizens are cleaning up our backyard, which includes you.
America is great = Stormy Daniels
LOL