The politics of immigration
The average working American knows what our political leadership is ignoring. Illegal immigration carries a steep cost to society. States spend more than $7 billion each year on K-12 education for illegal aliens and hundreds of millions more in treating illegal aliens in border-state hospitals.
More than three quarters of Americans say we need stricter controls on immigration. However, a Chicago Council on Foreign Relations survey found that only 14 percent of our political leaders agreed that current immigration levels represent a critical threat. I can think of no issue on which there is greater disconnect between our political leaders and the American middle class than illegal immigration.
Congress and the president must create a national immigration policy that is far more than a job fair for illegal aliens and a gift of citizenship to those who break our laws. We desperately need a national immigration policy that is effective in securing our borders, rational both economically and socially, and, as Simpson said 18 years ago, humane. The only way we can meet those goals is for our politicians to rise above pandering to lobbyists and special-interest voting groups and to talk honestly about the issues that now confront us. Don't hold your breath.
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