Immigration

Amnesty has become the political act that dare not speak its name. Nativists go wild when they hear the term. Mainstream immigrant advocates talk around it. Immigration-restriction fanatics have so poisoned and blurred the word’s meaning that they see it lurking in any legislation that proposes anything less than jail time or mass deportations for illegal immigrants.

But is the idea of amnesty really as outlandish and un-American as radio talk-show hosts and Republican politicians make it sound? Is it really… more

Inside the mind of Sen. Teddy Kennedy:

I see that many of my fellow liberal Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama, are trashing my immigration bill.

Those fools! Can’t they see the gift I’m giving them? This bill will not only improve social justice and enhance racial diversity in America, but will also wreck the Republican Party -- what’s not to like?

And here’s the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund coming out against the bill. And the Massachusetts Immigrant and… more

Barely two weeks after the May 1 melee at MacArthur Park, immigrant rights activists are already planning another demonstration, this one in Hollywood in late June. They should quit while they’re ahead. Mass street demonstrations are a high-risk political strategy that quickly reaches the point of diminishing returns. Organizers should ask themselves whether they’re really trying to appeal to the goodwill of the general public -- and Congress, as it debates immigration reform -- or simply grandstanding.

There is little doubt… more

So three of the men arrested for plotting to massacre American soldiers in New Jersey were here illegally. Here’s a dumb question: Why are there any people here in this country illegally?

It’s possible to argue back and forth about the economic and social impact of illegal immigration into the United States. But surely there can be no argument about the undesirability of terrorism.

And, since we have just been reminded yet again that illegal aliens can be terrorists, we should ask… more

Avondale, Colo. -- Spring is about to spring up here in this high plains farming community just outside the old steel city of Pueblo, and Joe Pisciotta is still not sure whether he’ll have enough of his usual workers to tend his crops.

Ever since the Colorado Legislature declared war on illegal immigrants last year, farmers in this neck of the woods have been worried that the undocumented workers who make up at least half of the area’s farm labor will… more

So who is an American? What’s the key to American identity? The answer can be hard, even brutal. But it’s ours -- we earned it with our own blood.

Whenever America travels around the world in a military adventure -- or misadventure -- the question needs to be answered anew. And whenever globalists and open-borderers want to bring the world here, without respect for American culture and tradition, that question needs to be answered yet again, even more emphatically.

The classic exposition… more

All questions about immigration are questions of political and economic power. Specifically, which group in America has the political power to open or close the border -- thereby gaining economic advantage?

So today, who stands to win, and who stands to lose, from President George W. Bush’s renewed effort to enact "comprehensive immigration reform?" Let’s look at the record.

Bush traveled yesterday to Yuma, Ariz., to talk tough on border security. He had to talk tough. Since 9/11, immigration advocates have conceded… more

Woodlawn, The Bronx -- Imagine Hillary Clinton holding up a T-shirt that read: "Legalize Mexicans." That’s not going to happen, right?

Well, last month in Washington, at a rally hosted by the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, the leading Democratic candidate for president actually did have her picture taken holding a shirt that read: "Legalize the Irish." That’s the lobby’s in-your-face slogan, which says a lot about the role that race (and ethnicity) plays in the debate about illegal immigration. Latino… more

Martha doesn't like to talk about her future anymore. She'd wanted to go to med school, become an OB-gyn. And she's exactly the kind of kid everyone roots for. She grew up in a poor, mostly immigrant neighborhood in East Los Angeles, where most people didn't graduate… more

The same bad idea that is ruining Europe threatens to ruin the United States, too. Indeed, the news that Uncle Sam can’t find more than 600,000 of what the government calls "fugitive aliens," those who have been ordered out of the country but slipped past the enforcement system, reminds us, yet again, that border enforcement and maintenance of sovereignty are low priorities for Washington.

The bad idea threatening both America and Europe is this: Borders don’t matter. Why not? Because patriotism… more