By Allan Wall
01/17/2012
Peter Brimelow reported in a blog entry the encouraging comments by candidate Rick Santorum about chain migration and the visa lottery. The Numbers USA blog entry Peter linked to has the text of Santorum’s relevant comments as well as a link to a video of the speech in which he delivered them.
In this address, Santorum handily demolishes Newt Gingrich’s justification of granting amnesty to an illegal alien who’s been here 25 years:
“I don’t believe that people who have been here, and I don’t care how many years, should earn the right to be able to stay in this country as a result of the fact that they've been here … . The idea that because someone has been here 25 years and worked and raised a family, that that fact should create an opportunity for them to be able to stay longer — I would just say this: If someone has been here 25 years, unless they're independently wealthy, they've probably broken a whole bunch of other laws. Because you had to work. And if you worked, you were illegally working. And if you found work, you probably had a fraudulent ID — which is illegal. Or, you had a fraudulent Social Security number, which is also illegal. You've stolen someone’s identity. So, it’s not like folks have just committed one act … “
I think it’s noteworthy that Santorum cuts through the rhetoric about "dividing families" that so many others utilize:
“ … .I understand we don’t want people to be separated from their families, but my grandfather separated from his family for 5 years and did it the right way. And there are millions of families in America that separate in order to follow the laws of America and do it the right way. There are people who break the law today and we send them to jail and we separate them from their family. Why? Because they broke the law. So, let’s just treat everybody the same and not treat people who broke into this country differently.”
Rick Santorum hasn’t completely reached our way of thinking here at VDARE.COM. The candidate continues to gush on and on about his immigrant forebears, says we need "diversity", and seems convinced we require foreign agricultural workers.
But, on the positive side, he realizes that chain migration is not the way to run an immigration policy, that illegal aliens don’t deserve amnesty no longer how long they've been here, and that the separation argument is bogus. That’s good.
Don’t regard this as an endorsement of Santorum’s candidacy. Here at VDARE.COM we can’t endorse any candidate. Besides, we need to see if Santorum will walk the walk, and not just talk the talk.
As with all these Republican candidates, we need to keep our eyes on Santorum and hold his feet to the fire.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.