David Brooks or Tokyo Rose?

I invite my readers to read the column "Two Steps Toward a Sensible Immigration Policy" from the NYT's David Brooks in a Tokyo Rose accent:

What do you say to the working-class guy from the south side of San Antonio? He feels his wages are stagnating because he has to compete against illegal immigrants. He watches thousands of people streaming across the border, bankrupting his schools and health care system, while he plays by the rules...

What's he doing in San Antone? That's what I want to know.

The system is out of control.

That's a stock talking point. I've been keeping track of its use, and my coverage starts here.

...Tough enforcement laws make us feel good, but they don't do the job. Since 1986, we've tripled the number of Border Patrol agents and increased the enforcement budget 10 times over, but we haven't made a dent in the number of illegals who make it here...

Yes, as my readers know the Bush administration is all about tough enforcement of our immigration laws. In the last year, three companies got enforcement warning letters. That's tough enforcement, I tell you what.

We've got agents chasing busboys while who knows what kind of terrorists are trying to sneak into this country...

Now, let's compare this bit from cheap labor cheerleader Tamar Jacoby:

[BP Agent Lee Morgan] criticizes the apprehensions as a waste of time and resources. "They're just poor people trying to feed their families," he shrugs... "What if the bastards come across here in Arizona and I don't catch them because I'm so busy chasing a busboy or a gardener that I don't have time to do my job--my real job--catching terrorists?..."

Speaking of the devil:

We need these workers, but we force them underground with our self-delusional immigration policies. As Tamar Jacoby of the Manhattan Institute says, "It's very hard to enforce unrealistic rules." ...So it doesn't matter how many beer-swilling good old boys appoint themselves citizen border guards, we're not going to get this situation under control until we understand this paradox: The more we simply crack down, the more disorder we get...

I think I'm going to stop right about here, ayup. Obviously, Brooks is more than just an NYC elitist. He's also a Bush-supporting hack, much like a more famous version of Hugh Hewitt.

He goes on to support both the Kennedy-McCain and Kyl-Cornyn massive amnesty schemes, parroting Jacoby's support for them. And, he ends with his support for "serious immigration reform".

This column appears under various names:

Immigration policy to suit San Antonio working guys

Regulating the flow of immigration

Brooks: Immigration: Let's get practical

Two Steps To Sensible Immigration Policy

I suggest that henceforth we put Brooks in the same category as Jacoby, Hewitt, and the rest.

Comments

I have yet to see any of the "y'all come" crowd explain how we will this time overcome the problems of last time, that is the 1986 IRCA amnesty.

We were promised that there would be tough sanctions against employers who hire illegal workers and, face it, that is the bare minimum that is needed. On the right, business organizations lobbied to weaken sanctions so that cheap labor would be plentiful and easy to hire with little or no serious checking. On the left, the civil rights groups raised unshirted hell about immigrants being targeted for employer scrutiny. End result: Weak employer sanctions with nearly nonexistent enforcement. How will McCain-Kennedy or Kyl-Cornyn be different? Who's gonna rein in the Homebuilders Association and La Raza?

For the record we were also promised that this IRCA would be a "one time only amnesty".

All the "sensible" immigration proposals I've seen will in the end all mean the same thing: tens and tens of millions more non-white immigrants over the coming decades -- the continued demographic destruction of the country.

Economic and social concerns aside, legitimate though they may be, there is absolutely nothing "sensible" about a country taking on so many unlike aliens that its dominant historic demography is completely overturned, replaced by a balkanized America of various self-interested "communities".

IMO, anyway.

Not to mention the sprawl, consequent environmental damage, and quality of life deterioration from sheer numbers as all of these newcomers stream into exising urban and suburban areas.

Notice how they have taken our word "reform" and use it for their Amnesty or what they call their "guest worker" program.

At least Brooks is man enough to print his email address at the bottom of his column, unlike some of his lefty colleagues. I wrote him and received a polite acknowledgement after noting that the "beer-swilling good old boys" remark was unworthy of him, in addition to some other criticisms.