Yes, We Can Send Them Home                                  

            With unemployment pushing close to 10 percent, it’s not easy these days to be an advocate of illegal immigration. For the time being, at least, the Obama Administration admits that it doesn’t have the votes to pass an amnesty. Cool heads within the administration realize that legalizing illegals, thus inviting more to come and take jobs, is a good way to invite a political backlash.

            But never underestimate the cunning and determination of those who strive to undermine our rule of law and nationhood. One of the lines they’re using now is that, like it or not, there is no way we can deport the 12 million or so illegal aliens who now live in our country. Therefore we must legalize them and make them citizens.

            Interestingly, this is the same line they were using back in 1986 when they passed the first amnesty. At that time they said it was impossible to deport the three million illegal aliens then living in the country. No matter what the numbers are, it’s clear that they simply don’t want enforcement of our immigration laws.

            And it’s especially clear now as the Obama Administration steps back from even the very modest upgrades of enforcement grudgingly carried out by the Bush Administration during the latter part of its second term. Obama is not going to complete the border fence, continue worksite raids to arrest illegal aliens, and require federal contractors any time soon to use the E-Verify system, which allows employers to check the legal status of employees.

            Interestingly, these and other steps seemed to have some impact on illegal immigration. Arrests at the border have declined, and during the past year perhaps as many as one million illegal aliens have gone home. No doubt the greatest reason for these changes has been declining job opportunities due to the recession. But many observers believe that the uptick in enforcement played a role too.

            Illegal alien advocates dishonestly suggest that the only way to deport illegal aliens is to apprehend and repatriate each and every one of them. To do so, they claim, would require intrusive police state measures.

            Present and past experience clearly indicate otherwise. When illegal aliens see that we are serious about enforcing our laws, quite often they go home on their own volition, thus deporting themselves. To illustrate, in 1954 the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower grew concerned about the rise of illegal immigration across the Mexican border. Unencumbered by our current concerns of political correctness, the administration acted swiftly and forcefully.

            That year immigration agents rounded up and deported approximately 130,000 illegal aliens. As the consequence of this action, more than a million more saw the writing on the wall and departed on their own.

             We can deal with 12 million illegal aliens with a policy of attrition, i.e., slowly tightening enforcement to encourage this population to leave. We don’t lack the means to do so, only the will. And what saps that will is the greed, treachery and ambition of the illegal alien lobby.