Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Bush plan: conservatism at its best
From the RoundTable blog
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Ed Lynch
Lynch teaches political science at Hollins University, and is a descendent of immigrants.
When President George W. Bush toured the southern border of the U.S. to address immigration issues, it was widely recognized that he would have to work hardest to convince some of his fellow Republicans of the wisdom of his ideas.
Commentators such as Sean Hannity and Michele Malkin routinely become red-faced with hysteria in their opposition to any change in U.S. migration policy, short of a borderwide "shoot to kill" order. I have attended innumerable meetings of Republicans in which people repeatedly asserted that migration policy was their one area of disagreement with President Bush.
Central to conservatives' anti-Bush comments on immigration is the odd notion that Bush is not "conservative enough" on the issue, or that being a good conservative means being "tough" on immigrants. In fact, Bush's plan to create a temporary-worker program, and to rationalize U.S. migration policy, are in the best traditions of conservatism and of America.
For many of my fellow conservatives, the migration issue is primarily about homeland security. They believe that fewer immigrants will equal more security. However, this deceptively simple argument leaves out some important considerations.
First, I have rarely heard a conservative, supposedly interested in homeland security, mention the northern border of this country. There is not a single documented case of a terrorist entering this country from Mexico, which makes me wonder if the Hannitys and Malkins of the world have a different reason for focusing on the southern border.
Second, even if terrorists were entering this country from Mexico, the truly conservative solution is not to build a wall. Let liberals embrace "solutions" that punish the innocent along with the guilty -- that's their forte. Conservatives believe in individual justice, not collective justice. This is why we need a temporary-worker program that matches willing workers with willing employers.
There is a practical need for such a program, as well. With the current irrational migration system, potential workers and potential terrorists have to use the same illegal system to enter this country. Thus, in the words of one border patrolman quoted in The Wall Street Journal, the terrorists may be pouring into this country "while I'm busy arresting someone's gardener."
Certainly, there is work to be done to prevent dangerous people from entering this country illegally, and Bush has increased the number of border agents; made extensive use of technology, including unmanned aerial vehicles and infra-red technology; and constructed more access roads to permit border patrol agents to get to the border faster. But as more immigrants are arrested, it becomes more and more plain that most people enter this country looking for work, not looking for trouble.
Conservatives are supposed to believe in the virtue of capitalism. Matching a willing worker with a willing employer is an essential part of capitalism. Conservatives used to call such matches "opportunity."
In fact, migrant men have a higher employment rate in this country than native-born men. They also make purchases in the communities where they work, including Roanoke, and pay sales taxes, property taxes and have income taxes withheld from their pay, while they perform jobs that native-born Americans don't want.
Most migrants are, in short, hard-working, taxpaying, opportunity-seeking neighbors, the sort of people conservatives ought to consider ideal future citizens.
Finally, conservatives should know that America cannot create a garrison state on the southern border without threatening precious liberties everywhere. Even with a wall, there will be immigration to America, so long as we remain the land of opportunity. But with such a wall, and the paranoia that it would represent, we would rapidly become the land of internal checkpoints, of a national identity card, of raids by federal agents, of intercepted mail and of harassed businesses. Conservatives should oppose these things.
Conservatives should also embrace the proud immigrant heritage of America, especially as we Virginians prepare to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first "illegal" immigrants, who came ashore at Jamestown. The Statue of Liberty speaks of "the golden door." I have very little patience for those who wish to slam that door shut now that they are on the right side of it.
Perhaps those who wish to show how "tough" they are on migrants would like to melt down the Statue of Liberty, and use it to build their wall.
