Jonah’s said everything that needs saying about the No Labels initiative itself, but the idea that labels are reserved for those who are “wrong” in the eyes of the right-thinking crowd, while those who are “right” can’t be labeled, applies in immigration as well. I was reminded of that this week when the think tank of the immigration lawyers’ lobby released an open letter from “immigration scholars” calling on the Senate to pass the DREAM Act amnesty.

I’m familiar with many of the signatories, and they run the gamut from serious, reputable scholars to hard-left post-American hacks, and each of them is entitled to his opinion. But those opinions need to be acknowledged when they are consulted — as they frequently are — by the media or lawmakers. Needless to say, such acknowledgment never happens; I don’t recall ever seeing the professors who signed this document (352 at last count) described by reporters as “a professor at the University of X who supports legalization of illegal immigrants” or “an immigration advocate who teaches sociology at the State University.” Meanwhile, my own organization, the Center for Immigration Studies, is always labeled by reporters as “supporting lower levels of immigration” or “favoring tighter immigration controls” — which is fine because it’s accurate (though “anti-immigrant” is not, or even “conservative,” despite my own personal views).

Here is a place where we need more labels, not fewer.