Jason Riley hits a home run in the Wall Street Journal today, titled "GOP Nativists Tarnish Reagan's 'Shining City'" (paid site only, sorry!)
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.
Our current illegal immigration problems result from a policy at war with the law of supply and demand, a war that pro-growth conservatives understand is as unwise as it is unnecessary. Short of mass alien deportations at gunpoint, which would damage the economy and aren't likely to fly well with the public, any transition to a more sensible system will involve some sort of decriminalization.And the president is attempting to do just that -- bring some sense to the system. Post-9/11, a guest-worker program that invites illegals to join the above-ground economy only makes us safer. It means less time chasing workers essential to our economic well-being and more time sorting through genuine terror risks.
Foreigners have always served to enrich our culture, replenish our work force, keep us competitive globally and save us from heading where stagnant, immigrant-averse Europeans and Asians have already arrived. In the coming decades, a proper immigration policy will be needed more than ever. The sooner Republicans settle this intraparty spat and start listening to their inner-Reagan, the better off they'll be.