Since 1795, Congress has passed a variety of laws--some restrictive,
some accommodating--to regulate the conditions under which foreigners
may immigrate into the United States. In 1903 Congress gave the Federal
government the authority to deport illegal immigrants. In addition,
the Federal Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 provided that any
person encouraging an alien to enter the United States in violation
of the laws could be punished by fine or imprisonment. Those laws still
stand.
Since the early days of the republic, millions of immigrants from all
over the world have observed the immigration laws, waited their turn
in sometimes long lines of applicants, and entered our country without
any difficulties with the immigration authorities. Relatively few have
been deported.
Yet, for decades, increasing millions of Latin Americans, two thirds
of them Mexicans, thumbed their noses at the U.S. immigration rules
and entered illegally by any means possible. As a gesture of good will,
Congress repeatedly issued broad amnesties for illegal aliens. In the
late 1980s and early 1990s, for example, 2.7 million illegals were
give green cards as part of the Immigration Reform and Control Act.
Such measures, however, only emboldened ever larger numbers of Latin
Americans to defy U.S. immigration laws. The Center for Immigration
Studies estimates that today at least 10 to 11 million illegal aliens
are present in the U.S., an estimate relying heavily on U.S. Census
data that critics consider too low.
Recently, some of the millions of illegals and their friends have been
defiantly demanding that the U.S. government ought to overlook their
unlawful entry and again extend a broad amnesty for all of them. The
demonstrators routinely ignore, however, that permission to immigrate
into any country is a privilege, not a right. In contrast to amnestied
illegal aliens, Americans violating traffic laws or anti-drug laws
are promptly punished and have never been given an amnesty.
As a minimal penalty and as deterrence for future illegal entrants,
why should Congress not ask illegal aliens to go back to their home
country, go through the proper application procedure, and learn to
appreciate the pleasure of immigrating legally? As part of the enforcement
of the immigration laws, the government also needs to crack down on
the hundreds of employers who have been luring foreigners as cheap
labor into illegal entry.
In response to the businessmen who claim to have a vital need for immigrant
labor, Congress would be well advised to create the legal framework
for a clearly defined and carefully controlled guest worker program.
Such temporary immigrants might well be given the opportunity to apply
for permanent admission later.
To be sure, the immigration laws are not the main reason for the unrest among
a large segment of illegal and legal Latin American immigrants. The present crisis
rather is rooted in their failure to recognize the need for law observance, as
well as in the immigration authorities’ failure to enforce the laws and
control the borders.
The vast majority of Americans have always welcomed immigrants, as long as they
were willing to abide by the rule of law. Most of America’s lawmakers rightly
insist that, among all people, those from abroad who want to live and work here
should show by their conduct that they respect the laws of the land. If Congress
feels justified in impeaching a sitting president for lying about a misdemeanor,
how can it overlook the illegal immigration of millions?
In a highly emotional and irrational editorial, The New York Times recently claimed
that by not enacting another sweeping amnesty for all illegal immigrants, Congress
would condemn “regular people” to be “a permanent underclass
deprived of any ladder to something better.” That is patent nonsense.
Let us insist that all immigrants enter our country as “regular people” through
legal channels. Then they will soon find out that, depending upon their ability
and effort, America offers all kinds of ladders “to something better.”