May We Get Serious Now?

FOR many years the editorial page of the Wall Street journal has been wag-ing a vigorous crusade in behalf of unlimited immigration. Over the last 40 years, though, opinion polls have shown that an overwhelming majority of Americans oppose an increase in the level of immigration—so the pro-immigration forces have sought to keep the issue off the political agenda. They have presented immigration as so economically desirable and politically inevitable that only innumerates, fools, and bigots could possibly oppose it; anyone who did so was promptly declared “out of the mainstream.” Meanwhile, immigrants—legal and illegal—continued to flow in, unimpeded, at a rate of up to 1.5 million new entrants a year.

September 11 changed all that. Given that the hijackers were all immigrants, common sense suggested that this might indicate some failure of immigration law; legislation to tighten up border security was surely required.

About the Author

John O’Sullivan

John O’Sullivan is a senior fellow at National Review Institute and a contributing editor of National Review.

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FOR many years the editorial page of the Wall Street journal has been wag-ing a vigorous crusade in behalf of unlimited immigration. Over the last 40 years, though, opinion polls have shown that an overwhelming majority of Americans oppose an increase in the level of immigration—so the pro-immigration forces have sought to keep the issue off the political agenda. They have presented immigration as so economically desirable and politically inevitable that only innumerates, fools, and bigots could possibly oppose it; anyone who did so was promptly declared “out of the mainstream.” Meanwhile, immigrants—legal and illegal—continued to flow in, unimpeded, at a rate of up to 1.5 million new entrants a year.

September 11 changed all that. Given that the hijackers were all immigrants, common sense suggested that this might indicate some failure of immigration law; legislation to tighten up border security was surely required.