05/06/2006
We at VDARE.COM are naturally delighted that so many Establishment Right figures are finally speaking up about immigration. But you've got to watch them. A reader who is a veteran Rush Limbaugh student reports that Limbaugh was obviously rattled yesterday by a woman caller who challenged him on what to do about the illegals who are already here — and who would be not directly impacted by the border fence he is now advocating. Limbaugh accused her of being a "seminar caller" — a liberal plant. When she persisted, he finally conceded:RUSH: Nobody is talking about deporting these people … Obviously. That’s the whole point. We're not even talking about immigration [deportation] here. We're talking about people that want jobs. There has to be a serious attempt with these twelve — Using your hypothetical, we've got the border shut, and the number of illegals that succeed in getting past is a trickle and not enough to worry about. What do we do? We have to assimilate them. We have to require them to acculturate, and that’s not hard to do, and we identify who they are and we let them stay and if they claim they're here because they want to become Americans we give them the chance to do that, but we don’t put them at the head of the line, we don’t run them ahead of people playing by the rules. But the key to it is closing the border.
… i.e. no deportation.
Of course, this would be a disaster. Under current law, these 12 [or 20] million] would then be able to sponsor endless chain-migration of relatives. Conversely, there are many ways to cause the illegal population to self-deport, basically by removing government subsidies, taxing remittances and so on. In fact, Limbaugh could even have pointed out that a defended border would probably reduce the illegal presence, because many illegals commute back and forth, and might well elect to stay home.
As I've said before, there are immense unseen pressures on MSM figures to toe the immigration enthusiast line, and we should applaud any who show signs of courage. But, as also illustrated by the case of NRO’s recent stealth capitulation on legal immigration reform, we can’t put our trust in them.
Limbaugh transcript here.
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