BORDERING ON MADNESS

Thomas Sowell


In a recent confrontation between protesters against the illegal flood of unaccompanied children into the United States and counter- protests by some Hispanic group, one man from the latter group said angrily, "We are asvgood as you are!"
One of the things that make the history of
clashes over race or ethnicity such a history
of tragedies around the world is that --
regardless of whatever particular issue sets
off these clashes -- many people see the
ultimate stakes as their worth as human
beings. On that, there is no room for
compromise, but only polarization. That is
why playing "the race card" is such an
irresponsible and dangerous political game.
The real issue when it comes to immigration is not simply what particular immigration policy America should have, but whethervAmerica can have any immigration policy at all.
A country that does not control its own
borders does not have any immigration
policy. There may be laws on the books, but
such laws are just meaningless words if
people from other countries can cross the
borders whenever they choose.
One of the reasons why many Americans are
reluctant to keep out illegal immigrants -- or
even to call them "illegal immigrants," instead
of using the mealy-mouthed word
"undocumented" -- is that most Hispanics they
encounter seem to be decent, hard-working
people.
This column has pointed out, more than once, that I have never seen Mexicans standing on a street corner begging, though I have seen both whites and blacks doing so.
But such impressions are no basis for
deciding serious issues about immigration
and citizenship. When we do not control our own borders, we have no way of knowing
how many of those coming across those
borders are criminals or even terrorists.
We have no way of knowing how many of
those children are carrying what diseases that
will spread to our children. And we already
know, from studies of American children, that
those who are raised without fathers in the
home have a high probability of becoming
huge, expensive problems for taxpayers in
the years ahead, and a mortal danger to
others.
A hundred years ago, when there was a huge
influx of immigrants from Europe, there were
extensive government studies of what those
immigrants did in the United States. There
were data on how many, from what countries,
ended up in jail, diseased or on the dole.
There were data on how well their children
did in school.
As with most things, some immigrant groups did very well and others did not do nearly as well. But today, even to ask such questions is to be considered mean-spirited.
Such information as we have today shows
that immigrants from some countries have far more education than immigrants from some other countries, and do not end up being supported by the taxpayers nearly as often as immigrants from other countries. But such information is seldom mentioned in discussions of immigrants, as if they were abstract people in an abstract world.
Questions about immigration and citizenship are questions about irreversible decisions that can permanently change the composition of the American population and the very culture of the country -- perhaps in the direction of the cultures of the countries from which illegal immigrants have fled.
During the era of epidemics that swept across Europe in centuries past, people fleeing from those epidemics often spread the diseases to the places to which they fled.
Counterproductive and dangerous cultures
can be spread to America the same way.
Willful ignorance is not the way to make
immigration decisions or any other decisions.
Yet the Obama administration is keeping
secret even where they are dumping illegal
immigrants by the thousands, in communities far from the border states.
Looking before we leap is not racism -- except in the sense that anything the Obama administration doesn't like is subject to being called racist.
Americans who gather to protest the high-
handed way this administration has sneaked illegal immigrants into their communities can expect the race card to be played against them. The time is long overdue to stop being intimidated by such cheap -- and dangerous -- political tactics.