Disclaimer: I like Hugh Hewitt. I like his politics, I listen to his show, and I appreciate his patience and grace in laying out conservative arguments in a concise and effective manner. Over the decades, Hugh Hewitt has more than earned his place in the pantheon of dependable, consistent conservatives. And he's a lot more optimistic than I ever am about the state of affairs.
So it was with gnashing of teeth and rending of garments that I read his latest take on immigration, in which he advocates in euphemistic, evasive terms a return to the Romney/Bush approach, i.e. a path to citizenship for those here illegally who nevertheless work hard and commit no felonies and are just looking for their piece of the American pie.
To which I retort, with all due respect and deference, with three words.
No. NO. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
If there is one issue that separates the MAGA conservatives from the cruise ship Republicans, it’s immigration. And though we MAGA conservatives have decisively reshaped the party, and have arguably “won” the internal debate on how to best approach illegal immigration, there persists a very reasonable and justified anxiety among us that the pro-amnesty Republicans have not accepted defeat. They’re just keeping their heads down, biding their time, for an election that puts them back on the throne.
But whenever the media insists there is a schism among Republicans, the pro-amnesty Republicans simply can’t help themselves. They start piping up about the need to “de-escalate,” about the need for “comprehensive” immigration reform (i.e. amnesty), about a “path forward” for DREAMers, and so on, and so forth.
Hugh insists he isn’t calling for “amnesty.” Rather, he claims he’s calling for “regularization.”
It’s semantics. Other than the right to vote (which they do illegally anyway), his policy prescriptions differ little from the amnesty demands that the left has made for decades.
But that path has proven a loser, time and time again, both in practice and at the polls. Yes, conservatives prefer that the felons and rapists be deported first. But that doesn’t mean we stop there. Illegal is illegal, and the “nice” ones are detrimental in ways less grotesque, but nonetheless significant.
Regardless of their alleged superhuman work ethic, the presence of millions of illegals inevitably depresses wages. That’s not racism. That’s Economics 101. It’s what happens when the job market is flooded with cheap labor. Illegals don’t do the jobs “Americans won’t do.” Illegals do the jobs Americans won’t do for depressed wages. Illegals hurt the poorest Americans by pricing them out of the workforce.
In addition, our schools, our hospitals, and our social services are overburdened to the limits. Cities and states end up spending more on ESL classes and less on everything else. Qualified teachers are getting passed over for jobs because they don’t speak Spanish.
Then there’s the problem of assimilation. Because neither our government nor our cultural institutions demand, or even value, assimilation, illegals coming in by the millions were able to establish their own Balkanized neighborhoods. They never bothered to learn English. They never showed interest in embracing the nation that so generously took them in. They never expressed any gratitude.
As the Los Angeles insurrection showed us, these self-segregated illegals have learned the worst lessons from the left. They make demands, not expressions of thanks. They fly foreign flags on American soil and claim the land as their own. They despise their host nation, and do everything they can to undermine it.
Hugh makes some questionable claims, such as saying that voters “do not like the dragnet approach to illegal immigrants,” and that “voters are not generally in favor of deporting hardworking migrants.” Hugh claims that only a “very loud but small slice of the right wants deportation of 100% of people in the country illegally.” He makes the usual Jeb!-like calls for “compassion.”
Hewitt advocates ending the “political cost of unpopular deportations of low-skilled but dedicated labor that hardly anyone objects to when they are on the receiving end of the services provided by those migrants.” That is, verbatim, the leftist argument. We need them to mow our lawns and bus our tables.
I’m not sure where he’s getting this information regarding the “political cost of unpopular deportations.” A recent Cygnal poll showed that 97% of Republicans and 59% of independents support deporting those living illegally in the United States. An Ispos poll shows 71% of all voters support deporting all illegals. Regardless of which poll is closer to the truth, both are a far cry from Hewitt’s assertion that only a “small slice of the right” supports mass deportations.
Trump ran almost exclusively on a platform of not only ending, but reversing, illegal immigration. He ran on a promise to build the wall, to refuse amnesty, and to deport as many illegals as possible. And despite the snickering and guffaws from the Beltway Republicans, he won. Twice. On this issue.
What Trump should do is double down. He just won a significant (but underreported) victory in Minnesota by getting Walz and Frey to cooperate with ICE in turning over illegals with federal warrants (though how long this cooperation continues is up for debate). If he can continue to get sanctuary cities to change course, many of these high profile, citywide ICE operations wouldn’t even be necessary.
Related: Trump Is Keeping Noem, and He Is Right to Do So
Trump didn’t win by going soft, by moving to the middle, or by betraying the conservative base to corporate and leftist interests, as so many other Republicans have. Trump won by going against what every Liberty Eagle Forum For Eagles of Liberty overpaid thinktank group of Beltway cocktail party consultants told him to do.
With the wall and an emphasis on border security, Trump showed all the “experts” that illegal immigration can be brought to an immediate halt. With appropriate pressure from the State Department (and occasionally the Pentagon), Trump showed all the “experts” that foreign countries can be persuaded to stop dumping their narco-gangs and criminal trash across our borders. With domestic enforcement and ICR raids, Trump showed all the “experts” that even the specter of such a raid has caused millions of illegals to self-deport, to the point that the United States is experiencing negative net-migration for the first time in decades.
What Trump is doing is working. What Hewitt is suggesting has already been attempted and has failed, several times over.
Stay the course, Mr. President.
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