The Corner

Bush Amnesty Silver Lining

I’m not convinced by any of this reader’s points, but you might be. In any

case, this is about as good as silver-lining e-mails have got today:

“Derb–For one thing, the millions of illegal immigrants in this country

support a large and thriving trade in false documents. We know that some of

the 9/11 terrorists took advantage of this industry to equip themselves with

counterfeit identification. Decreasing the demand for false papers will dry

up some of the demand for that criminal industry and shrink it down to a

size that is more manageable for law enforcement.

“For another thing, the cries of outrage over this proposal provide

President Bush the political cover he needs to begin construction of the

northern and southern border fence projects. Purchases of steel for the

chain link fence and razor wire top might go part of the way to helping the

steel industry finish the year in the black while the construction it self

will help reduce unemployment in an election year. The guest worker visas

should go a long way to diminishing the amount of political pressure that

would be brought against such a measure by industries that use illegal

immigrants if such a measure were not in place.

“Like the jihad against America, the stock market crash following the burst

of the dot com bubble and the Enron type corruption of the Clinton era,

illegal immigration is yet another issue that President Bush inherited from

his predecessors who ignored it and wished it away. His response may not

make you perfectly happy, but at least President Bush is attempting to

finally do something about it.

“How many Democrat voting, unfireable government employees would have to be

hired to round up all the illegal aliens and deport them?”

John Derbyshire — Mr. Derbyshire is a former contributing editor of National Review.
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