AS THE nation’s attention has turned to its borders, immigration has emerged as an issue that poses both opportunities and risks for conservatives. To be sure, there are a number of entirely legitimate concerns over the record number of newcomers arriving here. Yet conservatives must avoid being stampeded into rash policies that will be not only ineffective, but politically counterproductive.
In no small way, the current backlash against immigration is a direct result of the studied indifference to the issue among political elites—conservatives and liberals alike—during the 1980s. Among liberals, a smothering tolerance ruled out any serious examination of the potentially negative impacts of the largest influx of foreigners America had experienced since the turn of the century. As for conservatives, they smugly reassured themselves that the market would take care of everything. One consequence of this conspiracy of silence is that we don’t know as much as we should about the impact of immigration on American society.
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