My posts yesterday responding to John Derbyshire and Mark Krikorian included a non-analytical panegyric to immigrants, both legal and illegal. I was curious to see how Corner readers would react. What greeted me in the Americas Majority Foundation mailbox was a perfect 50/50 split between indignation and gratitude. Some examples below the fold:

JESSICA wrote:

I hate how proponents of illegal immigrants act as if they are all paragons. I’m quite sure that most are nice enough folks, but I am sick of how illegal criminals are ignored by law enforcement in the US. They are either not deported, or return at will.

ROGER wrote:

I just wanted to write to thank Mr. Nadler for defending Hispanic immigrants so vigorously at The Corner. I am a conservative that has felt increasingly at odds with the way conservatism has been moving with respect to immigration. As someone whose wife is El Salvadoran and has been going through the agonizing marriage visa process, I’ve come to appreciate that we need a simplified immigration process and probably a lot better avenues for legal immigration than we do have now. I too have seen the hard work that many Latinos do here and appreciate it. And with a lot of Hispanic relatives in this country, I know that the Hispanic community is just as worried about the breakdown in values in their community as we conservatives are about America in general. In short, I think his message is right on, and I’m glad he’s delivering it.

MALACHI writes:

Comparing the Southern States’ outrageous and viscerally offensive treatment of civil rights protestors to the Federal Government’s on-again-off-again enforcement of democratically-enacted, Constitutional immigration laws is illogical, manipulative, and does your cause no credit.

JOHN write:

I just read a great post at National Review by Mr. Nadler. I completely agree with his message on immigration… A group with your message is essential at this time in American history.

VINH writes:

Why don’t you have an Asian outreach? You know Asians lean Republican more than Hispanics do. Especially Asian refugees who are highly Republican, while Hispanic illegal aliens are mostly Democrats.

STAN addressed Mark through my mailbox:

Mark’s contention that there are roughly 51 million hires annually in the U.S. makes no more sense to me than it does to Richard Nadler….According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are roughly 145 million employed people in the U.S. There are no absolutely reliable data on how often workers change employers, but no survey I’ve seen indicates this happens more than once every five years on average for the entire workforce. Consequently, the number of hires per year is at most in the range of 30 million, not over 50 million. As I said, this does not necessarily undermine your (i.e., Mark’s –ed) case for E-verify, except to the extent it suggests strongly that you are not particularly adept or careful in interpreting data.

— Richard Nadler is president of the Americas Majority Foundation, a public-policy think tank in Overland Park, Kan.