Category Archives: immigration

An Inapt Analogy

Posted on by
Reply

With friends like this….

I’m a firm believer in tightly secured borders with legal entry points established at one-mile intervals along it and the elimination of visa quotas for those who want to come here legally, whether with a goal of gaining citizenship or just for long-term residency and work—so long as they pass tight vetting procedures.

A Letter to the Editor writer in Monday’s Wall Street Journal tried to make the same point, but his point was, and is, counterproductive.

In saying that demanding specialized skills as the criterion for entry might work for the short-term but was long-term short-sighted compared to a come one, come all (presumably subject to vetting) criterion, the letter writer offered this:

Our nation historically has been more like the Milwaukee Brewers than the New York Yankees.

Well, no.

The Brewers are perennial losers, having never won a World Series and whose last pennant win was in 1982.  That’s not the United States I know.  The Yankees, on the other hand, have 27 World Series titles and 40 pennants.  That, though, isn’t the United States I know, either; although, it’s closer to the mark.

The US benefits from taking on all comers who want to become Americans (not many all-comers stay with either the Brewers or the Yankees), and we also gain from taking on those who have specialized skills that directly and quickly benefit us, whether they want to become Americans or want to be here as long-term residents.

Licensing Illegality

Posted on by
Reply

The New York State Assembly wants to give drivers licenses to illegal aliens. The New York Immigration Coalition is completely on board and has begun pressuring the State’s Senate leadership to rubberstamp the Assembly on this. These Progressive-Democrats and their activist supporters rationalize the move this way:

He [NYIC Executive Director Steve Choi] said issuing licenses to immigrants would reduce hit-and-run-vehicle crashes, lower insurance costs and make it easier for immigrant laborers—including those working on farms—to get to work.

This is nonsense. Illegal aliens still will run from their accidents—they’re still illegal, and they would face arrest and deportation if they hung around.  This, in turn, means the license move will have little to no effect on insurance costs—just as, for instance, illegal aliens have little to no impact on the costs of other forms of insurance.

As to the other foolish claim, immigrant laborers already have no trouble getting to work, including to farm work. Only illegal aliens have this trouble. The illegal aliens could correct this problem, though, by (re)entering legally.

On that last, there is a valid beef: it takes entirely too long to get legal entry permission, and the caps on legal entry are far too low.  These, though, are not addressed at all by drivers licensing.

Citizen’s Arrests

Posted on by
2

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) has no understanding of duty or of law.  It seems that an armed group of citizen militia caught 200 illegal aliens in the act of illegally entering our nation near Sunland Park, NM, and they detained those illegal aliens until US Border Patrol agents—which those citizens called—could arrive and take charge.

In her response to this, Grisham said,

It should go without saying that regular citizens have no authority to arrest or detain anyone[.]

On the contrary, it should go without saying that regular citizens have both the authority and the duty to arrest and detain until the arrival of formally constituted authority—police or Border Patrol agents, for instance—persons committing crimes in the presence of those citizens.  It also should go without saying that that authority and that duty derive from the plain duties of citizenship.

It’s both instructive and illustrative that this Progressive-Democrat does not understand the obligations of citizenship.

An Outcome of Open Borders

Posted on by
Reply

Two members of MS-13, having been deported, have been arrested trying to illegally reenter our nation.  These thugs were traveling separately and were caught in widely separated locations.

The fact that they were caught might be an argument that we don’t need walls at key areas of our border.  However, such an argument elides the fact that many others get through without being caught because we don’t have those walls, which would both seal off the particular areas and would funnel penetration attempts to other areas more limited and more easily patrolled.

The continued flow of these thugs and of drugs is an outcome—intended or not—of the open border policy of the Progressive-Democrats.  Progressive-Democrats just don’t see thugs and drugs as much of a problem.

Progressive-Democrats do insist that they want secure borders, and that this can be achieved by technology.  However, they carefully do not say how technology will stop anything, since all technology is capable of doing on its own is watching—a necessary component of security, but very far, indeed, from sufficient.

These same Progressive-Democrats know that full well, which contradicts their pretense of not wanting open borders.

The Attorney General and Immigration Judges

Posted on by
Reply

John Yoo, who was a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel, has reminded us of the authority of the AG vis-à-vis immigration judges.

He [the AG] has the power to overrule immigration judges. Immigration judges have been making mistakes….

Aside from the immigration judges’ error rate, it’s really quite clear that the AG can overrule them. Not only are immigration judges not Article III judges, they’re employees of the Department of Justice—they work for the AG. Beyond that, they’re not even judges; they’re Special Inquiry Officers.