January 26, 2015

On Immigration, It’s GOP v. GOP

The morning after President Obama’s State of the Union address, Politico had a story on how Republicans had responded to one contentious issue. The headline: “Priebus struggles to explain GOP immigration messages.” That would be Reince Priebus, the Republican Party chairman. His “struggle” was to clarify why Iowa’s new senator, Joni Ernst, said nothing at all about immigration in her 10-minute reply to the president, whereas Florida Representative Carlos Curbelo, in a Spanish-language version of the GOP response, urged Obama to work with Republicans “to create permanent solutions for our immigration system, to secure our borders, [and] modernize legal immigration.” Good thing Priebus wasn’t asked about the formal Tea Party response to the president’s speech, delivered by another Florida Republican, Rep. Curt Clawson, or he’d have had still more reason to squirm. Speaking in English *and* Spanish, Clawson called pointedly for “embracing … legal immigrants, and the millions waiting in line legally to begin their own American Dream.”

The morning after President Obama’s State of the Union address, Politico had a story on how Republicans had responded to one contentious issue. The headline: “Priebus struggles to explain GOP immigration messages.”

That would be Reince Priebus, the Republican Party chairman. His “struggle” was to clarify why Iowa’s new senator, Joni Ernst, said nothing at all about immigration in her 10-minute reply to the president, whereas Florida Representative Carlos Curbelo, in a Spanish-language version of the GOP response, urged Obama to work with Republicans “to create permanent solutions for our immigration system, to secure our borders, [and] modernize legal immigration.” Good thing Priebus wasn’t asked about the formal Tea Party response to the president’s speech, delivered by another Florida Republican, Rep. Curt Clawson, or he’d have had still more reason to squirm. Speaking in English and Spanish, Clawson called pointedly for “embracing … legal immigrants, and the millions waiting in line legally to begin their own American Dream.”

Then there was Iowa Representative Steve King’s rude Twitter slam against Obama for inviting “a deportable” to sit in the House gallery as a guest of the First Lady. That was a reference to 20-year-old Ana Zamora, a Texas student who was brought illegally to the United States as an infant, and who benefited from Obama’s 2012 executive order indefinitely extending legal status to thousands of similarly situated immigrants.

Though King’s tweet wasn’t an official GOP statement, it created some instant awkwardness for the Republican presidential hopefuls heading to Iowa for a Saturday “freedom summit” hosted by … King. When one of those hopefuls, Senator Marco Rubio, was asked about King’s nasty tone, his answer was careful: “We have to always remind ourselves that we’re talking about human beings with hopes and dreams and families.”

Plainly, the clearest element of the GOP message on immigration is that the GOP has no clear message on immigration. The subject was barely mentioned in the president’s address, but that didn’t stop the loyal opposition from once again getting into an intramural tangle over it.

But is that a bad thing?

For any large political party, a boisterous battle over policy and principle is a sign of fitness, not feebleness. While “diversity” is a sacred cow on the left, it is on the right where real diversity – diversity of ideas and viewpoints – has most often been showcased. In the 1970s, Ronald Reagan famously debated William F. Buckley Jr. on whether the United States should relinquish the Panama Canal. In the 1980s, Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich fiercely clashed over supply-side tax cuts. More recently, Republicans have gone at each other over war in Iraq, education reform, and “enhanced interrogation.”

However disconcerting in the short run, the right’s current rumble over immigration policy is heartening, especially when the argument focuses on ideals and values, and reflects a thoughtful interest in crafting wise, not merely popular, public policy. In a new monograph from Encounter Books – “Open Immigration: Yea & Nay” – Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies and Alex Nowrasteh of the Cato Institute provide a brief yet splendid example of how uplifting the debate over immigration can be.

Each lays out his case in prose that is clear, quick, factual, and respectful.

Krikorian, a well-known immigration restrictionist, argues that while mass immigration may have suited the United States in the 19th-century, it is harmful in the 21st-century. It poses security and economic threats, undermines assimilation, and retards productivity gains by flooding the market with cheap labor. “A modern society doesn’t actually need any immigration,” he writes; his proposal would slash the annual influx from 1 million to about 400,000 – “still higher than any other nation in the world.”

Nowrasteh, by contrast, wants more legal immigration. America isn’t being swamped with newcomers – far from it. As a fraction of our population, immigrant inflows are small compared to most developed countries. Every policy generates stresses and strains, he notes, but there is no question that immigration enlarges the US economic pie. “A freer immigration system would not only be economically beneficial to the United States,” Nowrasteh argues. “It would also be consistent with our principles of limited government, free markets, and individual liberty.”

These dueling essays are a pleasure to read. Each advocate strengthens his case, paradoxically, by granting that the other side raises serious challenges and attempting to meet them. To be sure, Krikorian and Nowrasteh aren’t politicians, ravenous for votes and approval ratings. But their debate exemplifies what is possible even on such an incendiary issue.

It’s true: Republicans and others on the right, battling it out over immigration, seem awfully fractious and confused these days. For those who take their ideas seriously, that’s often how the democratic process works.


Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.