Border Lines

ON the day hijackers slammed their jumbo jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the House of Representatives was scheduled to vote on a measure the pro-immigration lobby has wanted for years. It’s called “245 (i),” and it would have let illegal aliens adjust their status without leaving the United States. In other words, people living in this country in violation of its immigration laws would be able, when eligible, to pick up green cards at their local INS office—as opposed to having to travel abroad to seek them at consular offices. This is another example of how official Washington winks at illegal immigration, and it would have won easy approval but for the emergency evacuation of the House Chamber.

A lot changed on September 11. The 245 (i) provision may still pass—it’s pretty popular among politicians because there’s a specific constituency for it—but there won’t be any more talk about a broad amnesty for illegal aliens. (Opponents probably wouldn’t hesitate to point out that one of the men responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing became a legal resident because of the last amnesty, in 1986.) To the extent that the amnesty measure survives at all, it will downshift into a guest-worker program for agriculture, whose advocates feel compelled to speak in terms of what they call “food security.”

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.

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ON the day hijackers slammed their jumbo jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the House of Representatives was scheduled to vote on a measure the pro-immigration lobby has wanted for years. It’s called “245 (i),” and it would have let illegal aliens adjust their status without leaving the United States. In other words, people living in this country in violation of its immigration laws would be able, when eligible, to pick up green cards at their local INS office—as opposed to having to travel abroad to seek them at consular offices. This is another example of how official Washington winks at illegal immigration, and it would have won easy approval but for the emergency evacuation of the House Chamber.

A lot changed on September 11. The 245 (i) provision may still pass—it’s pretty popular among politicians because there’s a specific constituency for it—but there won’t be any more talk about a broad amnesty for illegal aliens. (Opponents probably wouldn’t hesitate to point out that one of the men responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing became a legal resident because of the last amnesty, in 1986.) To the extent that the amnesty measure survives at all, it will downshift into a guest-worker program for agriculture, whose advocates feel compelled to speak in terms of what they call “food security.”

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.