GOP Nativists Tarnish Reagan's 'Shining City'

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Monday, March 15, 2004 | JASON L. RILEY

[presidio9]

Just what is it about immigration that makes so many conservatives lose their bearings?

Broach the subject, as President Bush did in January with his guest-worker initiative for illegal aliens, and free-market advocates start forgetting principles. (Flexible labor markets? What use are those?) Self-styled realists start fantasizing. (Let's just deport all 10 million of 'em, Elian-style!) And colorblind sensibilities are suspended. (White hegemony, where have you gone?) Suggest that immigration, legal or otherwise, not only is in the American tradition but a net benefit to our economy besides, and watch the editors at National Review and the pseudo-populists at Fox News come unhinged.

[Poohbah]

We had a guest-worker program until 1965. We didn't have a significant illegal immigration problem until 1965.

A nonresident guest-worker program with applications only accepted in Mexico, and severely restricting welfare programs--you'd see an end to illegal immigration, and the self-deportation of present illegal immigrants.

JMO, YMMV.

[duffman]

I should also add that even thrid- and fourth-generation Mexican-Americans have relatively low levels of education:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=2495&page=9

Ack! My post should read: ...THIRD- and fourth-generation...

I know it's just a typo, but it looks a bit stupid to have spelling error in a post about low education levels.

[duffman]

I don't see how a guest worker program is necessary. At the time of the guest worker program, overall levels of legal immigration were quite low, which is certainly not the case today. Though we did abolish the guest worker program in 1965, that was the same year that we passed the 1965 Immigration Act, which vastly increased overall immigration. Lyndon B. Johnson also vastly expanded the welfare state with the Great Society in the mid to late 1960s.

I would argue that the main reason illegal immigration got worse after the 1960s was not the abolition of the guest worker program, which was more than made up for in a large overall increase in legal immigration with the 1965 Immigration Act. Even in the midst of the guest worker program, the U.S. deported substantial numbers of illegal aliens (as in "Operation Wetback" in 1953). The combination of the expanded welfare state and increasing political correctness (and therefore tolerance of illegal immigration) are mostly responsible for the vast increase in illegal immigration since 1965.