Denver Post (Opinion by Ruben Navarrette): Editor's note: Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a CNN.com contributor and a nationally syndicated columnist.
Newt, we hardly knew 'ye. Just when it looked like the former House speaker was aiming to be the only grown-up in the room when Republicans talk about immigration, Newt Gingrich says something infantile. Or, rather, if you watched the recent CNN debate from Arizona, several things.
Granted, one thing Gingrich has going for him is that the other main contenders for the GOP presidential nomination are arguably even more clueless on the issue.
Mitt Romney said during the debate that Arizona is a "model" for the rest of the country because of how it has handled immigration.
That's like going back in time to 1964 and saying Mississippi is a model for the rest of the country because of how it handled civil rights. Arizona lawmakers passed an atrocious law that legitimized racial profiling of Latinos, divided the state, cost millions of dollars in lost tourism and convention business, distorted the political climate, sparked a lawsuit by the federal government, and wound up being gutted by a federal judge. Oh yeah, Mitt. That's a swell model -- for disaster.
Meanwhile, Rick Santorum, who likes to talk tough when going after illegal immigrants and implying that they don't measure up to the Italian immigrants in his family tree, got all squishy when moderator John King asked if we should punish the millions of homeowners who hire illegal immigrants to work as housekeepers, nannies, gardeners and senior caregivers. This sort of thing, Santorum said, was a "step too far" and that we should focus on "those who are here illegally and trying to do things that are against the law, like seeking employment here."
Wrong, Rick. Entering the country without the proper documents and using fake documents to find a job are both against the law, but the mere act of seeking employment isn't. Do you really think it's better to address the symptoms rather than the root cause? Going after employers — including homeowners — is a good way to show that we're serious about stopping illegal immigration. It's simple: People won't come across a border if there aren't employers on the other side waiting to hire them.
Gingrich recently suggested the common-sense approach of giving temporary worker permits to undocumented immigrants who have been in the United States for years so as not to divide families through deportations. And yet, his debate performance was unimaginative and uninspiring.
When King asked Gingrich to address Texas Gov. Rick Perry's skepticism that we could ever build a fence on the U.S.-Mexico border that was high enough to keep out desperate people determined to feed their families, the former House speaker brushed off the question and then doubled down on the simplistic approach of building more fences.
Never mind that researchers like Douglas Massey of Princeton, who has studied the U.S.-Mexico border for more than a quarter of a century, have pointed out that fences actually increase the population of illegal immigrants in the United States by discouraging them from returning to Mexico because they're afraid they wouldn't be able to return.
Later, when asked whether Marco Rubio was right when the Florida senator said recently that some of the rhetoric on immigration from Republicans was "harsh and intolerable and inexcusable," Gingrich — who is known for his intelligence — played dumb and pretended not to know what in the world Rubio was talking about. Who? Us? When?
So, I take it that Gingrich doesn't read newspapers, monitor websites, watch cable television, or listen to talk radio. If he did, he'd know exactly what Rubio meant.
Besides, Gingrich said, the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act — which he voted for and which called for border security and employer sanctions in exchange for offering amnesty to more than 3 million illegal immigrants — was "supposed to solve all this."
What a foolish thing to say. That law couldn't solve the immigration problem, and no law can -- until Americans accept responsibility for creating the problem and stop hiring illegal immigrants. We need to be clear and honest about this, and we need our leaders to stop trying to coddle voters by constantly advancing the ridiculous narrative that they're somehow the victims when this wound is self-inflicted.
It's time for Americans to grow up and do our own chores, and it's time for politicians to stop pandering and start telling us the hard truth.
Newt, take note.
Newt, we hardly knew 'ye. Just when it looked like the former House speaker was aiming to be the only grown-up in the room when Republicans talk about immigration, Newt Gingrich says something infantile. Or, rather, if you watched the recent CNN debate from Arizona, several things.
Granted, one thing Gingrich has going for him is that the other main contenders for the GOP presidential nomination are arguably even more clueless on the issue.
Mitt Romney said during the debate that Arizona is a "model" for the rest of the country because of how it has handled immigration.
That's like going back in time to 1964 and saying Mississippi is a model for the rest of the country because of how it handled civil rights. Arizona lawmakers passed an atrocious law that legitimized racial profiling of Latinos, divided the state, cost millions of dollars in lost tourism and convention business, distorted the political climate, sparked a lawsuit by the federal government, and wound up being gutted by a federal judge. Oh yeah, Mitt. That's a swell model -- for disaster.
Meanwhile, Rick Santorum, who likes to talk tough when going after illegal immigrants and implying that they don't measure up to the Italian immigrants in his family tree, got all squishy when moderator John King asked if we should punish the millions of homeowners who hire illegal immigrants to work as housekeepers, nannies, gardeners and senior caregivers. This sort of thing, Santorum said, was a "step too far" and that we should focus on "those who are here illegally and trying to do things that are against the law, like seeking employment here."
Wrong, Rick. Entering the country without the proper documents and using fake documents to find a job are both against the law, but the mere act of seeking employment isn't. Do you really think it's better to address the symptoms rather than the root cause? Going after employers — including homeowners — is a good way to show that we're serious about stopping illegal immigration. It's simple: People won't come across a border if there aren't employers on the other side waiting to hire them.
Gingrich recently suggested the common-sense approach of giving temporary worker permits to undocumented immigrants who have been in the United States for years so as not to divide families through deportations. And yet, his debate performance was unimaginative and uninspiring.
When King asked Gingrich to address Texas Gov. Rick Perry's skepticism that we could ever build a fence on the U.S.-Mexico border that was high enough to keep out desperate people determined to feed their families, the former House speaker brushed off the question and then doubled down on the simplistic approach of building more fences.
Never mind that researchers like Douglas Massey of Princeton, who has studied the U.S.-Mexico border for more than a quarter of a century, have pointed out that fences actually increase the population of illegal immigrants in the United States by discouraging them from returning to Mexico because they're afraid they wouldn't be able to return.
Later, when asked whether Marco Rubio was right when the Florida senator said recently that some of the rhetoric on immigration from Republicans was "harsh and intolerable and inexcusable," Gingrich — who is known for his intelligence — played dumb and pretended not to know what in the world Rubio was talking about. Who? Us? When?
So, I take it that Gingrich doesn't read newspapers, monitor websites, watch cable television, or listen to talk radio. If he did, he'd know exactly what Rubio meant.
Besides, Gingrich said, the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act — which he voted for and which called for border security and employer sanctions in exchange for offering amnesty to more than 3 million illegal immigrants — was "supposed to solve all this."
What a foolish thing to say. That law couldn't solve the immigration problem, and no law can -- until Americans accept responsibility for creating the problem and stop hiring illegal immigrants. We need to be clear and honest about this, and we need our leaders to stop trying to coddle voters by constantly advancing the ridiculous narrative that they're somehow the victims when this wound is self-inflicted.
It's time for Americans to grow up and do our own chores, and it's time for politicians to stop pandering and start telling us the hard truth.
Newt, take note.
No comments:
Post a Comment