In the Washington Post today, novelist and essayist Mark Helprin discusses  what he calls the "unvarnished immigration debate." Helprin rightly points out that not only can the nation's borders be secured, but doing so is a necessary precondition of sovereignty.  He also sensibly emphasizes that the question of border security "should be beyond debate" and is a separate issue from the question of the amount and type of immigration that the nation should permit. Looking at today's immigration politics, Helprin notes that the open borders lobby is composed of a "strange" coalition of "businesses large and small, careerists with Latin nannies, and those who want wages low, the unions suppressed, and their gardens well tended" as well as those "who have embraced multiculturalism and bilingualism," who have "disdain" for America, and who "would be delighted to see it changed any which way as long as it becomes unrecognizable."  So far I completely agree with Helprin's...(Read Full Post)