First of all, I’ve written in the past (see “What To Do About Immigration,” Commentary 1995) that having immigration entirely skewed to accommodate immigrants from only a handful of countries is not necessarily in the national interest and I certainly make no case in my latest Commentary piece for the current mix of immigrants who are coming legally much less illegally.
Second, while affirmative action for Hispanics is a problem– one I’ve been fighting for over 30 years– it is a far smaller problem than affirmative action for blacks, despite almost equal numbers of potential beneficiaries from each group. As the Center for Equal Opportunity’s studies show (all posted on our website, www.ceousa.org), while Hispanics get some preference in college admission, it is about half that for blacks, and some schools (albeit only a few) do not give preference to Hispanics at all, judging from the qualifications of those actually admitted.
Finally, I have also warned that the persistence of affirmative action preferences may counter the tendency for ethnic identification to wain for Hispanics even as they intermarry; the answer is to eliminate affirmative action, not purge Hispanics from American society.