Rosen: First of all, stop the flood

Published April 21, 2006 at midnight

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Ron Tapia is an 18-year-old high school student in St. Paul, Minn., who marched with 30,000 other supporters of "immigrant rights." Tapia is a sympathetic figure. Unlike others who participated in demonstrations across the country, he doesn't appear to be one of those angry radicals seeking to reclaim the Southwestern United States for Mexicans in the name of the reconquista. Tapia hopes to "change the way America thinks" about illegal immigrants. "We're not criminals," he says, "we're just regular people like everybody else here. All we want is a good American life."

Tapia was born in Mexico and entered the country illegally with his mother and sister. That makes him an illegal immigrant. As a citizen of another country, that also makes him an alien. He's not a criminal in the sense of one who commits a violent crime. Entering our country illegally is a civil offense, not a criminal one. But that still makes him a lawbreaker. As an immigrant - even an illegal one - he has some rights in this country, but not all the rights of legal immigrants or citizens. He can't vote, for example. Well, he can, but that would be illegal, too.

Illegal immigrant activists have sought to position themselves as champions of civil rights in the tradition of Martin Luther King. But American blacks in that era were citizens who were being denied their legitimate constitutional rights. Illegal immigrants are demanding rights to which they're not legally entitled. This may be a humanitarian movement, but it's not about civil rights.

I can understand why Ron Tapia and many others desire a "good American life." His prospects are greater here than in Mexico. But half the world's population would probably like to come here and enjoy our political freedoms and economic opportunities, to say nothing of our government's welfare-state largess. And I don't doubt that would be good for them. As a sovereign nation, however, we get to determine our own immigration policies based, first and foremost, on what's good for us.

Yes, humanitarianism is a consideration but only up to a point. Idealistic pleas from some religious groups to take in anyone and everyone in the name of compassion and "social justice" are tantamount to an open-borders policy that would be suicidal for our nation. They are not to be taken seriously. We don't bar legal immigration and visitation, but we regulate it - or at least we used to. Most of us don't want to take in another 3 billion people. It would make it more crowded here and erode our standard of living. The real estate would be the same, but it wouldn't be America anymore. Call us selfish. What nation isn't? Mexico certainly is.

Congress is currently wrestling with immigration reform. The House and Senate are at odds. The House bill is restrictive and focused on securing our southern border. Competing proposals in the Senate are permissive and inclined toward amnesty, by one name or another. Pragmatic Democrats and Republicans are courting projected votes from Latino baby boomers yet unborn. This makes for a compromise. Here's my proposal:

1. Build a dam. Stop the flood. The House bill calls this "enforcement first." Secure the borders as soon as possible. Build a wall, install electronic monitors, beef up border personnel. Whatever it takes. Promises that this will be the "last amnesty" program are meaningless. We've never kept them in the past. A regulated guest-worker program is futile if illegals can bypass it and enter at will.

2. Mass deportation of 12 million illegals isn't logistically or politically feasible. We can absorb the bulk of illegals already here and will probably have to. Put them on a path to legal status even though that's unfair to those who have immigrated legally and those still in line.

3. After - and only after - the borders have been secured, legislate a rational immigration policy, limiting overall numbers and equitably distributing allocations among countries, with favorable consideration for immigrants with educational and skill qualifications that fit our preferences. This could include a guest-worker program identifying the kinds of workers we need, from manual labor to high tech, in the numbers we require on the terms we specify.

4. Create a high-tech, forgery-proof national ID card for everyone. We already have a national ID card. It's called a driver's license, but it isn't a very good one. I'm not seriously concerned about some paranoid's fantasy of the Gestapo confronting me on the street and demanding to "see my papers." We have to identify ourselves all the time at airports, banks, etc. Require employers to verify identity and certify legal status for all employees. Vigorously enforce this.

It's a start.

Mike Rosen's radio show airs daily from 9 a.m. to noon on 850 KOA. He can be reached by e-mail at mikerosen@850koa.com.

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