ON REPUBLICANS AND IMMIGRATION "REFORM"

IMMIGRATION DEFORM

It's really getting more difficult for a first generation American immigrant like yours truly, to also be a Republican going into the 2008 Presidential election. 

As this New York Times article titled "Candidate Giuliani Shifts his tone one Immigration" painfully highlights, all of the leading Republican presidential candidates have now modified their positions to be much harsher on immigration reform, trying to appeal to the baser elements of the party. 

The latest to do so is Rudy Guiliani, who until recently was a champion for immigrants.  Not unexpected given that New York City, is one of the best examples of what America can become, with the help of immigrants from around the world. 

Here's what the Times piece has to say on where the various Republican candidates stand on the issue:

"Immigration has been a difficult issue for all the major Republican candidates, and they have responded to it in notably different ways.

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, was the only one of the three leading Republican contenders to mention the issue at the Lincoln Day dinner, pressing an increasingly restrictive view.

Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who until recently joined Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, in pushing for a compromise in overhauling immigration, has moved away from a lead role on the issue in the Senate.

In Mr. Giuliani’s case, his aides acknowledged that most voters do not know how aggressive he was as mayor in pressing for ways to allow more immigrants into the country...

...For now, Mr. Giuliani is relying on his reputation as a law-and-order mayor to convince voters that he will crack down on illegal immigration."

Mr. Giuliani is running into the same issue on immigration as our current President.  Both have a practical, fair, and compassionate view on what true immigration reform should really be about for the long-term good of the country. 

However, both individual's true feelings on the subject are being thoroughly swayed by the practical, political imperatives of the more conservative elements of the party.

Nowhere is that attitude more clearly on display than this quote from the article:

At the annual Lincoln Day dinner here last Saturday, Representative Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado, received some of the loudest applause from the 1,000 party loyalists in attendance as he railed against illegal immigrants.

“We are destroying the concept of citizenship itself,” Mr. Tancredo said. “America, and indeed Western civilization, are in a crisis.”

By an ironic coincidence, that particular quote in the article is juxtaposed right next to an ad trying to vote Don Imus back into his old job.  And Mr. Tancredo has gone further than his comments at this Lincoln Day Dinner, as I pointed out in a post last July:

"Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado, chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, depicts illegal immigration as "a scourge" abetted by "a cult of multiculturalism" that has "a death grip" on this nation.

"We are committing cultural suicide," Mr. Tancredo claims. "The barbarians at the gate will only need to give us a slight push, and the emaciated body of Western civilization will collapse in a heap."

Which makes one think that while one prominent commentator's overt racist comments can cost him his job, another "public servant's" carefully coded racist comments makes him a very influential architect of the nation's current immigration policy.

But let's not contrast Representative Tancredo's comments just with those of Don Imus. 

Let's go back a little further, as Mr. Giuliani himself suggests at the end of the Times article:

These days, Mr. Giuliani frames the issue as one of national security. But as he talks about immigration on the campaign trail, Mr. Giuliani suggests that his core beliefs have not changed much since his days as mayor, often quoting a speech Abraham Lincoln gave in the 1850s.

“He made a beautiful speech in which he said the best American is not the American who has been here the longest or the one who just arrived,” Mr. Giuliani said recently. “It is the one who understands the principles of America the best because we are a country held together by ideas.”

Which makes it all the more  ironic that both Mitt Romney and Tom Tancredo made their comments on immigration "reform" at a Lincoln Day Dinner.

And it also makes one wonder, how far do the current crop of immigrant Americans have to go before coded racist comments by some of our politicians have the same cost in front of a national audience that Don Imus had to pay.

P.S.   This earlier post has additional links to my other pieces on immigration issues.

Comments

[Alexander]

I do not understand what you mean by "first generation American immigrant like yours truly" If you are here then you and your family came here to be an Americans. If you are legally here and can speak and understand the English language (the common language of the USA) and not on social welfare then Tancredo and the rest of America has no problem with you.
If you are on the team,then support the team.
Do you want the national language to change to Spanish? We are a melting pot,not a salad bowl.Come on man!,You know what everybody is
upset about.It is Mexico!

[Don Campbell]

It's only right that we oppose illegal immigration. Why should the US commit social & economic suicide to benefit a people in wich 41% are already on welfare. You don't relly think this is going to change because you get them out of the "shadows" do you? This Amnesty legislation is a conscious policy to decrease crime, poverty and illiteracy in Mexico & increase it here. Secure the borders, penalize the employers, stop all welfare and they'll self-deport.

[Alexander]

"Michael got his MBA at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1982, and BSc at Auburn University in 1980. He joined Goldman Sachs & Co. in 1982.

A native of India, Michael, aka Mukesh, grew up in the middle east., coming to the US in 1977 for college."
With all your knowledge and experience and considering how long you have lived here,why would you turn on the US like this.

I guess if India allowed 30 million people
to flood into the US you would support it.
The reality is that our society would not be
in as much danger from Indian illegal immigration as it is now from Mexico.
But since your loyalties are global maybe you just view the US,not as your home,but as
some region that should have no claims of sovereignty.

[Michael Parekh]

Alexander,

My comments are far from "turning on the US". I'm merely pointing out that immigration reform is an issue that is much larger than the illegal immigration from Mexico, a notion well embraced and understood by our current President.

The long-term SOVEREIGN strength of the United States is tied to having a growing, productive and prosperous population over the next 50 to 100 years, if we are to compete economically with two billion plus people in China and India that are rapidly climbing the economic and productivity ladders over that same period.

This is as much about our economic security over the long run, as it is about physical security over both the short and long runs.

As a first generation American, I'd like to see as prosperous an America as possible over the next century, for all our families in this country.

Thank you for your comments.

[Alexander]

I know you mean well when you say we need to compete with China and India.But that is not the purpose of this country.I do not care if India and China become more wealthy than the US.Good for them and their citizens.As long as we do not go backwards.Importing millions of poor Mexicans is not the way to compete anyway.
If you were to ask any "minuteman" out on the border in Arizona,if they had any problem with Mexico becoming a wealthy country,guess what you would hear? They would love it!
The US takes in over one million legal immigrants a year. Add in H1B guys and student visas and you have a pretty open nation.
But you are still kidding yourself if you do not want to see that this is very much about
Mexican illegal immigrants.The children of these immigrants do not even have the self respect to finish high school.