PrintMay 29, 2007
Immigration: Mend It Not Rend It
The immigration bill currently before the United States Senate is the usual farrago of band-aids and special interest goodies, trying to patch up the failure of 1986. It is, writes Peggy Noonan in unusually strong language, "a big dirty ball of mischief, malfeasance and mendacity, with a touch of class malice."In response to the political class's same-old same-old, the rest of us might profitably enquire: Never mind what they want. What do we want in immigration policy?We humans are a migratory species. Ever since the first modern hominids migrated out of Africa across the Straits of Hormuz 50,000 years ago we have wandered the earth. In the agricultural revolution about 8,000 years ago we decided to settle down on the land.But soon enough we tired of a life of rural idiocy, and 250 years ago began a new migration--from the country to the city. It is a story that we know by heart.By the mid-nineteenth century the migration off the land in...(Read Full Article)
