"The US has gone to hell": Anti-Immigration
One of the commenters here recently offered a list of things that have gone wrong with the US. The first item was "anti-immigration." This was intriguing to me for several reasons.
First, it seems to be a commonly repeated canard that US conservatives are against immigration. I have never seen any conservative say this.
Second, by failing to make the distinction between illegal immigration and legal, you make an argument like "I was arrested for driving the wrong way on a one-way street. The cops are against driving!"
Third, a substantial number of Hispanics (37% in one poll I saw recently) are in favor of stopping illegal immigration. Certainly those of my acquaintance, including recently naturalized US citizens, are strongly in support of Arizona's SB1070. Are these South and Central Americans "racists" or "Hispanic haters"? Some would argue that they must be, since they are conservative, but those arguments are rhetoric, not factual.
Fourth, the US government could be arguably considered "anti-immigration"; it IS a cumbersome and costly process to emigrate to the US legally. The game is currently rigged to incentivize illegals, oddly enough, as are various policies and Supreme Court rulings allowing illegal immigrants access to education, welfare, and jobs. It has been ruled a violation of various rights, including due process, to deny illegals access to the benefits of US citizenship.
Perhaps the US government is simply "anti-legal-immigration"; they seem happy enough with the illegals. But no conservative I've seen or heard of is against immigration per se.
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First, it seems to be a commonly repeated canard that US conservatives are against immigration. I have never seen any conservative say this.
Second, by failing to make the distinction between illegal immigration and legal, you make an argument like "I was arrested for driving the wrong way on a one-way street. The cops are against driving!"
Third, a substantial number of Hispanics (37% in one poll I saw recently) are in favor of stopping illegal immigration. Certainly those of my acquaintance, including recently naturalized US citizens, are strongly in support of Arizona's SB1070. Are these South and Central Americans "racists" or "Hispanic haters"? Some would argue that they must be, since they are conservative, but those arguments are rhetoric, not factual.
Fourth, the US government could be arguably considered "anti-immigration"; it IS a cumbersome and costly process to emigrate to the US legally. The game is currently rigged to incentivize illegals, oddly enough, as are various policies and Supreme Court rulings allowing illegal immigrants access to education, welfare, and jobs. It has been ruled a violation of various rights, including due process, to deny illegals access to the benefits of US citizenship.
Perhaps the US government is simply "anti-legal-immigration"; they seem happy enough with the illegals. But no conservative I've seen or heard of is against immigration per se.
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