How to reduce illegal immigration

The best, most long-lasting way to reduce illegal immigration is to reduce the credibility of those leaders who support it. That includes politicians, media sources, and leaders of various lobbying organizations.

If very few people believe what they say, they'll be forced to either tell the truth or they'll simply be marginalized.

We need to get to the point where supporting illegal immigration (or ignoring it or opposing enforcement of our immigration laws) is considered a fringe, untenable position.

Unfortunately, many who oppose illegal immigration go about it in a less than effective and even counter-productive way. For instance, burning a Mexican flag is a pretty stupid thing to do. What if we were able to, for instance, end the career of a reporter who supports illegal immigration? Wouldn't that be far more effective and send a much more powerful message to other reporters?

Here are some of the ways to get from here to there:

1. When you see media bias, send a short polite note to the ombudsman or editor of that paper.
2. Start a blog and highlight media bias or politicians with links to extremist groups. (Take a few extra seconds to look up the email address for that source's ombudsman, editor, or publisher and encourage others to write emails complaining about their coverage.)
3. Post examples of media bias to sites that accept contributions, such as FreeRepublic.com
4. Attend personal appearances by politicians and pundits, and ask them short questions that make them look as bad as possible. Not exactly "gotcha" questions, just something that they can't answer. And, ask it in a way that makes it difficult for them to avoid answering it. Unfortunately, many of those who make such attempts tend to ramble, so practice first. Consider having flyers with additional information, and consider passing those out before or after the event. Afterwards, make sure as many people as possible know about the question and their answer.
5. Comment on blogs; use technorati to look up recent posts about immigration matters.
6. Contact your representatives on a regular basis, and let them know that you oppose illegal immigration.
7. The WaPo is a frequent source of pro-illegal immigration propaganda. Despite that, some of their stories have a box where they link to bloggers discussing that article. They get that from technorati, so if you start or run a blog, make sure the latter site is being pinged.

Regarding #4, I attempted something like that in October. While related or not, note that Jacoby has changed her tune from supporting a "guest" worker program into supporting "earned legalization". And, here's an example of a direct link; all it took was one guy with a sign to force a politician to change his tune. Two worthy candidates would be Senators Harry Reid and Dick Durbin. Please attend their appearances and try to ask tough questions or at least pass out flyers explaining exactly what their positions mean.

Immigration · Tue, 05/02/2006 - 03:10 · Importance: 1