Friday, August 31, 2007
Editorial: No place for political ploys
Immigration legislation proposed by state Republicans smacks of political gamesmanship.
From the RoundTable blog
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State Republicans have found a way to divert attention from the flawed transportation plan and its voter-repelling bad-driver fees: an illegal immigration proposal that would prohibit public colleges and universities from accepting illegal immigrants.
There is no basis for the proposal to speak of, no evidence of illegal immigrants taking slots away from applicants who are here legally, no students crying that their applications were denied in favor of illegal immigrants'.
There is only mere suggestion, which makes the proposal more a political ploy that plays on the fears of an impatient, angered public than substantive idea to tackle illegal immigration.
It builds on the same fears that have prompted localities to adopt homegrown immigration measures.
It is the same fear that propels the push to shift what should be federal responsibilities to the state. Attorney General Bob McDonnell, for instance, is urging the governor to direct state police to assume primary immigration responsibility on behalf of the federal government. There is a proposed state mandate that would require sheriffs and jail administrators to train in rounding up illegal immigrants and starting deportation proceedings.
The fear is real, born of federal inaction. State and local officials are responding to public pressure to take matters into their own hands, or suffer the political consequences.
But state GOP leaders are exploiting that fear with their attempt to plant in the public mind the unsubstantiated idea that Virginia residents are being denied college admission because illegal immigrants are taking available slots.
Voters should not fall for the tactic. They should reserve judgment on what constitutes a correct state approach to illegal immigration -- and what does not -- until the State Crime Commission's Illegal Immigration Task Force issues its plan to streamline statewide immigration enforcement this fall.
In the meantime, voters should turn a deaf ear to the politicking.
"That's what elections are all about," Sen. Jay O'Brien, R-Fairfax, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch of the proposal. "It's a way of telling the public where Republicans are on this issue."
If that's really where Republicans are, voters should reject such fear-mongering.
A uniform statewide policy on immigration enforcement must be based in reality, not prejudice and fear.
