American Immigration Policy: Forward to the Past

The illegal immigration battle is heating up.  (It's almost as much a topic around the coffee as the far more important issue of who won American Idol and why.)  Curiously, this issue was thrust into the national spotlight just when the President’s approval ratings moved into free-fall. Illegal immigration, of course, has always been a hot button issue for conservatives. They love to play the immigration card during election years because, hey, no American likes to think a dirty, stinking immigrant is getting all the benefits of this wonderful country without paying all the prices.

It all reminds me of that episode of The Simpsons where the appearance of a single bear in town creates the need for a Bear Patrol. Once the citizens learn their taxes have been raised to pay for the Bear Patrol, the Mayor distracts them from their righteous anger by shifting the blame to immigrants. Soon enough an anti-immigrant proposition is on the ballot and suddenly the most important issue in Springfield is immigration. Ah, how often The Simpsons mirrors real life!

And, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere on Associated Content, it’s much easier to rally support by demonizing the illegal immigrant than by demonizing the real villain in this thing: employers who are getting away with paying sub-minimum wages, nothing even approaching benefits, and no payroll taxes themselves. The brilliant solution to our problem: hey, everybody, let’s build a wall! After all, the wall worked so well in keeping East Germans from escaping to the West, surely it will work in keeping Mexicans out of the US!