Immigrants and the GOP
Equally specious is the argument that Latino immigrants come here, often illegally, to “steal” jobs or to go on the dole. If illegal aliens are displacing natives in the labor force, why was there more immigration and less unemployment under President Bush? And if foreign nationals are primarily attracted to our welfare state, how to explain the fact that low-income immigrants are less likely to be receiving public benefits than low-income natives? …
Over the past decade, the states experiencing the fastest immigrant population growth have not been traditional gateways like New York and California. Latino newcomers have been flocking to Arkansas, Tennessee, Utah, Alabama, Mississippi, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and the Carolinas—states that are among the stingiest for public benefits. …
Polls regularly show that immigration is not a priority for Hispanic voters, but how border policy is discussed still matters as a threshold and symbolic issue. When Republican Presidential candidates are preoccupied with putting up an electrified fence along the Rio Grande and blaming Latinos (wrongly) for driving up crime, unemployment and health-care costs, we are a long way from Ronald Reagan’s welcoming GOP.
Blowback
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So, is Illegal Immigration as a concept gone now? All immigrants are to be treated the same?
Let’s chuck passports too.
JohnBrown on November 14, 2012 at 10:08 AM
I just object to rewarding illegals with citizenship. I like the “easy work visa” concept. I just don’t know where Republicans are going to get the sympathy (let alone the votes) for such a scheme when Democrats are promising all the other goodies.
Seth Halpern on November 14, 2012 at 10:12 AM
Well, I for one am against open borders, but being in the winery industry, they keep the whole national wine industry on its feet. It’s been an eye opener on this issue for me, for sure.
So next time you pop a bottle, do a little cheers to these hard working sonsabitches.
The illegals I work with work like dogs, don’t have great living conditions, and they never complain. I like to bring them cervezas on the hot days in our growing season. They work harder than most Americans could even imagine.
With that said, nations must police their borders.
blatantblue on November 14, 2012 at 10:15 AM
Because a large number of them are terrified of being discovered and so don’t apply for welfare-type bennies? And they’re terrified because they know they broke the law getting here and breaking the law being here.
That was difficult to deconstruct, I need to get a regular column at the NYT.
Bishop on November 14, 2012 at 10:15 AM
Amen I support either using mexico’s southern border as baseline for our standards since they are the most noble people and culture on earth I guess or just abolishing the whole damned thing period and wrecking everything.
Why should my Chinese friends not be allowed to just stay?
Abolish the INS and pocket the savings.
You want open borders open the god***ed borders.
harlekwin15 on November 14, 2012 at 10:15 AM
What nation?
Got a logic exercise for you.
What if secession already happened in 2001 and we’re just along for the ride now?
The left does not care about the bill of rights.
I am ready to take them at their word.
Barky can perfect America? Yeah he was real concerned over the first amendment.
They broke faith and rely on my blind loyalty to an idela they have not cared about for at least 11 years and maybe 44.
harlekwin15 on November 14, 2012 at 10:18 AM
They’ll just slap a deceiving headline on it like “let Detroit go bankrupt” and call it a day.
jawkneemusic on November 14, 2012 at 10:18 AM
That all changes with Obama and they know it. They also know that Obamacare guarantees them free healthcare for the rest of their lives at hardworking taxpayers expense. They will always vote for Santa Claus.
HotAirian on November 14, 2012 at 10:21 AM
You’re talking about illegal aliens, right? Personally, I’m more concerned about terrorists and drug dealers crossing our open borders, but if latinos are going to be angered by all attempts to secure them, I guess we’ll just have to hope that they and their pandering Democrat overlords are the first ones in the line of fire.
littleguy on November 14, 2012 at 10:22 AM
If the Grover Plan is correct, last week’s election would’ve gone our way. Where are all the Latino GOP voters from the 1980s whom Reagan allowed to stay?
Vera71 on November 14, 2012 at 10:22 AM
The fix is in folks, so . . .
No hablo Inglés. ¿Se puede conseguir licor con cupones de alimentos?
Time to get all in! Free tacos and Mescal for all!!
KickandSwimMom on November 14, 2012 at 10:27 AM
Amnesty will destroy the GOP and maybe it is time.
I get the feeling the 539 clowns in DC work for DC inc.
They are keeping us from our shale and oil because they cannot stand they have not nationalized the business and citizens will make more profit thn they’ll steal.
The left is at war with the citizen’s economic freedom.
harlekwin15 on November 14, 2012 at 10:32 AM
The facts, both in statistics and on the ground, contradict the entire article, and of course, the author pulls the old bait-and-switch of dropping ‘illegal’ and just calling them ‘immigrants.’
But of course, if the GOP would just stop being for border security, why the Spanish-speaking vote would magically flip and become largely Republican. Let’s just ignore history.
The problem is that the author is concerned with the GOP regaining power. I don’t give a DAMN about the GOP; they are merely the slightly more conservative option than the Democrats.
Pass amnesty Republicans, and you’ll never win a national election again. Think we’re playing around? Watch.
blindside on November 14, 2012 at 10:34 AM
Hmmm, looks like I’ll drink more beer if it helps in the cause of saving our republic from foreign Obama-loving invaders.
Punchenko on November 14, 2012 at 10:37 AM
Blindside nails it. Aint so blind
Reagan did amnesty and The Southwest gets bluer every day.
Not a coincidence.
Bensonofben on November 14, 2012 at 10:41 AM
And what of the Asian voters that we lost? The GOP has slowly lost their vote too, and if there’s any minority that I expect to swing more towards the GOP favor, it’s the Asian minority. (The WSJ editorial talks about this too).
Maybe amnesty isn’t the answer to the GOP’s immigration problem, but the tone some in the GOP use when they talk about immigrants “We love immigrants, but…” are obviously scaring people away.
And the amount of hate and blood boiling from people on the blogs and the likes when anybody from the GOP even dares to talk about something that may be distantly related to amnesty also doesn’t help things. You’ll just pass them off as “establishment” or “out of touch.”
So how should we attract the minority vote? We should just ignore em and just give em up to the Dems forever cause you know, all they want is “free stuff” right? (rhetoric like that doesn’t help the GOP immigrant problem) If only we had gotten those 8 million white voters who stayed home…darn..
daoster on November 14, 2012 at 10:48 AM
It’s not a Left/Right split. It’s instead an entrenched establishment that protects its own self-interests at the expense of the American people who foot the bills.
At the end of the day, rich white liberals, “conservatives”, and their allies like Obama sit atop the pyramid and pit us one against another while they live large in NY/DC/LA.
They import serfs from the Third World and expect us to work to subsidize it all. They bail out the banks and expect us to subsidize it all. They force their values on us, ridicule what we believe, and shame us into submission when we disagree.
This little aristocracy attacks us for “clinging” to God, guns, and our constitution while they prance around art museums, sit on the boards of the big banks, and moan on and on about the plight of others in far away lands, Mother Earth, or whatever the cause of the week happens to be. They also belittle us through the MSM as “radicals” and “rubes” for daring to defend the principles on which our nation was founded.
They even call us “racists” and incite violence against us for resisting them.
It’s a broken system.
Punchenko on November 14, 2012 at 10:53 AM
These people can write opinion columns till they are blue in the face. It doesn’t matter.
There are 2 things which must be dealt with here and are totally at odds which each other. If we are going to have work permits and a porous border than Birthright Citizenship has to go. If we will not get rid of Birthright Citizenship then the Border needs to be completely secured.
You can not have a porous border AND Birthright citizenship. They are mutually exclusive if we are to continue as a nation with any relation whatsoever to our past.
Rocks on November 14, 2012 at 10:53 AM
Debunking talk radio myths?
Polls also show that hispanics overwhelmingly support “taxing the rich” and the safety net/entitlement state.
gwelf on November 14, 2012 at 10:53 AM
Why can’t we buy Mexican wine instead?
faraway on November 14, 2012 at 10:57 AM
Yup.
My tribe such as it is is easy to be a member of.
Love Locke hate Marx.
The problem is the US schools don;t teach Locke and love Marx.
The Democrats problem is I will not tolerate that forever.
The pressure pot is ticking…..
harlekwin15 on November 14, 2012 at 11:00 AM
The same way the Democrats do, I guess — identity politics.
Organize the cheap labor against their rich liberal employers who exploit them for manicured lawns and clean gutters while passing on the cost to us. Demand higher pay for immigrant labor. Adopt the banner of social justice and use it against the Democrats to win votes and look compassionate. Be a bigger bleeding heart than the Democrats and expose them as the real party of the rich who want to flood our country with serfs that they can exploit. Make the Democrat brand of minority exploitation toxic.
Such a strategy might help us with working class voters and Hispanic voters. It might even make the use of cheap illegal labor unrealistic going forward.
I don’t care for class warfare — and I am not much of a populist, either — but the game has changed and we have to us every method to save the republic and keep the Left out of power.
Punchenko on November 14, 2012 at 11:03 AM
Because the economy was better. If the WSJ wants to persuade people, they need to stop insulting the intelligence of those who disagree with them.
Karl on November 14, 2012 at 11:04 AM
As Rush Limbaugh says, the GOP will never defeat Santa Claus.
FHA Still Loaning Money to Deadbeats
PattyJ on November 14, 2012 at 11:10 AM
Yeah, they hate Locke and have used Marx to fleece us, enrich themselves, and muzzle our complaints.
Now that more Americans are catching on to the scam, they want to import more non-Americans that agree with them and that will keep them in power.
Who would have ever imagined that the real communists were well-heeled members of the academy, the media, society, and the marbled halls of Washington?
Punchenko on November 14, 2012 at 11:12 AM
@Rocks: Securing the border is a basic act of sovereignty irrespective of generosity in granting work permits. If the border is porous for lack of competent oversight, a permit system is likely to be a charade as well, if not entirely gratuitous.
As for birthright citizenship, the theory at least is that easy permits which enable migrants to come and go without prejudice will eliminate the incentive to have children here as a hedge against deportation.
Seth Halpern on November 14, 2012 at 11:37 AM
By porous I did not mean simply illegal but free flow of people back and forth which we will have as to not would make Work permits pointless.
I think that your second point is what they would say and it’s facetious. People come here now legally on tourist VISAs for the sole purpose of having their child born here. It is not simply a hedge against deportation it’s a doorway to citizenship for every relative. Will people on work permits be able to vote? Get Social Security? No. Then they will still want their babies born here. Every pregnant woman within 120 miles of the US border will have her child born here by getting a work permit.
The idea that people are going to be happy with Work Permits is silly. I can already see the Democrats screaming about it being second class citizenship in a decade or 2.
Rocks on November 14, 2012 at 11:54 AM
Latinos, like Blacks, do compose a disproportionate amount of the prison population so there is something to be said about them driving up crime.
CorporatePiggy on November 14, 2012 at 11:57 AM
Rocks, you are correct. Some Asians, for instance, have “birth tourism” where they come and stay for their months of pregnancy, then give birth to the baby here. Then if things go bad in the home country, they move here and all are legal. Or they send their kids here to high school to stay in group homes with a guardian (coyote) and then they get driver’s licenses, which starts the legal document trail.
I know–I worked with them.
PattyJ on November 14, 2012 at 12:03 PM
Well said, daoster. But thats yet to get through the GOP rank&file. It may take another 4 years, or max another 8 years for them to accept the truth. Old GOP rhetoric is constantly being spouted, but things eventually change. Luckily, the GOP leadership is aware. Losing the asian-american vote in a landslide should have triggered a re-think. But no, same old approach and crap. Lol
tommy71 on November 14, 2012 at 12:04 PM
We need to start telling the truth before there will be any consensus about anything. There seems to be a linkage between pushing a pro-amnesty position and lying, just as there seems to be a linkage between pushing a “climate change” position and lying.
claudius on November 14, 2012 at 12:25 PM
This statement is pure deception in the form of statistical cherry-picking. If they are illegal immigrants, they don’t qualify for most public benefit programs. Their US born kids do, but they are citizens and will be lumped into the “low-income natives” group. Their kids will qualify for plenty of programs CHIP/WIC/Food Stamps etc. If they were lumped into the stats for the illegal immigrants and removed from the “low-income natives” the stats would likely tell a much different and more accurate story.
Furthermore, as usual, they conveniently lump legal immigrants and illegal immigrants together into “immigrants” to further (intentionally) skew their results.
The deception is disgusting.
batter on November 14, 2012 at 12:36 PM
I should also note, that here in Utah, you bet they also get plenty from the Food Bank and WIC (my mother volunteers at one and my wife worked with the other). Utah may be considered “stingy” but the Feds make the rules on WIC etc so the kids qualify and you better believe they take advantage of it an plenty of other programs (including federally-funded home weatherization grants).
batter on November 14, 2012 at 12:38 PM