Peggy Noonan, America Is at Risk of Boiling Over:
To take just one example from the past 10 days, the federal government continues its standoff with the state of Arizona over how to handle illegal immigration. The point of view of our thought leaders is, in general, that borders that are essentially open are good, or not so bad. The point of view of those on the ground who are anxious about our nation's future, however, is different, more like: "We live in a welfare state and we've just expanded health care. Unemployment's up. Could we sort of calm down, stop illegal immigration, and absorb what we've got?" No is, in essence, the answer.
Exactly right. One cannot have both an ever-expanding welfare state and a tolerant attitude toward illegal immigration.
An irony here is that if we stopped the illegal flow and removed the sense of emergency it generates, comprehensive reform would, in time, follow. Because we're not going to send the estimated 10 million to 15 million illegals already here back. We're not going to put sobbing children on a million buses. That would not be in our nature. (Do our leaders even know what's in our nature?) As years passed, those here would be absorbed, and everyone in the country would come to see the benefit of integrating them fully into the tax system. So it's ironic that our leaders don't do what in the end would get them what they say they want, which is comprehensive reform.
Unfortunately, we cannot take at face value what our so-called leaders say they want, especially when they employ gaseous phrases like 'comprehensive immigation reform' which mean nothing definite. Obviously, Job One is to stop the influx of illegal aliens. But try to get someone like Janet 'The System Works' Napolitano to admit that. She won't, not in a million years. It's not in her interest, since illegal aliens are most of them 'undocumented Democrats,' i.e., potential members of her party. Recently she dodged the fence question with the asinine response, "You can't stop 'em all." On her JackAss (Democrat) logic, if you can't stop 'em all –which is true — then there is no point in enforcing the border so as to stop more than are being stopped now.
Once Job One is done, then we can advance to the question of how to normalize and integrate the 10-15 million whom we have allowed to enter illegally. Noonan is absolutely right: we are not going to deport them, nor — I would argue — should we. Conservative bomb-throwers such as Ann Coulter who call for deportation are almost as irresponsible as Obama and Co. (To set forth my reasons why we ought not deport millions of otherwise law-abiding illegals who contribute to our economy and have children who are U S citizens requires a separate post.)
Lest my conservative friends fear that I am turning into a squishy bien-pensant latte-sipping liberal, let me throw this into the mix: the law that allows the U.S. -born offspring of illegal aliens to gain immediate citizenship needs to be changed.