“Throughout the presidential campaign, voters consistently told pollsters that they were sick and tired of America’s broken immigration system and its porous border. . . . Trump, who clearly and loudly stated he was for mass deportations of all persons lacking legal status in the U.S., jumped into that void. . . .
“Already the president-elect has announced his intentions to appoint . . . former Immigration and Customs Enforcement head Tom Homan as his ‘border czar’ and his longtime confidante Stephen Miller for White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser. All three are immigration hardliners. . . .
“Already [“border czar” Tom] Homan has laid down the gauntlet to defensive Democratic governors such as J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, who said Wednesday on MSNBC, “I am going to do everything that I can to protect our undocumented immigrants. . . .
“How should ordinary Chicagoans feel about this coming conflict? Is there reason to fear major unrest in the city’s streets? . . .
“We say there is much reason to worry about all of that. It is vital that Trump and his officials, and his opponents, cool down the rhetoric, change the tone and, ideally, reframe the debate in favor of the economic benefits to the nation of legal immigration.
“Job one should be expanding the avenues for legal immigration. . . . Work-visa programs for highly educated workers need to grow exponentially. Similarly, programs for guest workers who seek semi-skilled positions. . . .
“The big question here to our minds is how the nation ethically deals with the simple reality that it has not meaningfully enforced its own laws for years due to American internal conflict and thus has tacitly encouraged people to cross the border illegally. That’s the best argument for some form of compassionate Ronald Reagan-style amnesty for otherwise law-abiding persons already here for several years. . . .
“So by all means secure the border, Mr. Trump. . . . But also start talking about the power of legal immigration, [and] start boosting its numbers. . . .” — Trump’s Immigration Deportation Plans Need Compassion and a Dose of Humanity, Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 10/18/24 [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: Beware when the “mainstream” media bring up “compassion” when they talk about immigration. Seldom if ever is it compassion for the tired huddled masses of native-born Americans who see “diversity” turning their homeland into a place where they scarcely feel at home. No, the compassion is for the endless streams of immigration (legal and illegal) and the interests that reap cheap votes, cheap labor, and cheap sentiments from that stream.
Basically, this editorial is damage control to mitigate the impact of Donald Trump’s impending presidency. Thus it concedes Trump’s right to take at least a few steps to stem illegal immigration. But the in-coming president should restrain himself in order to show “compassion.” And besides, if he enforces the law too much he might face “major unrest” in the streets. That sounds like a threat.
Among those making such threats, as the editorial notes, are Democratic governors and other leaders who have suggested that they will defy the laws of our land to protect illegal aliens. Interestingly, the editorialist isn’t calling on these voices of sedition to “cool down their rhetoric” and “change their tone.”
Anyway, after its line that border control is legitimate (a sop to mollify Trump supporters), the editorial moves on its “compassionate” solution to illegal immigration: mass amnesty for millions of illegal aliens now living here—like the one passed under Ronald Reagan. Apparently, the editorialist didn’t recall that its main consequence was encouraging new surges of illegal aliens, hoping that they too could win the amnesty jackpot.
The next “compassionate” solution the editorialist wants us to consider is significantly increased legal immigration. It now runs at more than a million a year, and it’s done so for the past thirty years—the highest sustained level in our history. Legal immigration, much more than illegal migration, is pushing our foreign-born population to outlandish levels. If present trends continue, in just a little more than fifteen years, immigrants will total 82 million people, or nearly one in four U.S. residents.
Can we realistically hope to assimilate such a mass of people to our beliefs and values? If not, we risk confusion and disunity. Courting this danger is not compassion.