Peggy Noonan on Imigration

[Chris Alger]

Some people no doubt "oppose" illegal immigration for no other reason than its illegality, and to the same degree oppose illegal tax deductions, traffic violators and the like. But "illegaltiy" is obviously not what's driving this issue and the respect accorded "legal" immigration -- which largely involves highly educated, skilled workers -- is a smokescreen.

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One simple reason might be the desire to keep out those with totally unknown backgrounds, especially criminal

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Americans live without a care in the world about the "totally unknown" backgrounds of their neighbors. The obsessive concern for background checks for immigrant laborers reflects the mentality I was referring to.

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Some people no doubt "oppose" illegal immigration for no other reason than its illegality, and to the same degree oppose illegal tax deductions, traffic violators and the like. But "illegaltiy" is obviously not what's driving this issue and the respect accorded "legal" immigration -- which largely involves highly educated, skilled workers -- is a smokescreen.

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One simple reason might be the desire to keep out those with totally unknown backgrounds, especially criminal

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Americans live without a care in the world about the "totally unknown" backgrounds of their neighbors. The obsessive concern for background checks for immigrant laborers reflects the mentality I was referring to.

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I don't see how you can fairly claim this, or fairly assert that most Americans oppose illegal immigration because they are racist xenophobes.

In your prior post, you wrote:

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We could rationalize the policy with the sort of guest worker programs they have in other rich countries, but racism and xenophobia make it politically infeasible.

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Don't we offer visas and work permits and green cards already?

There are myriad good and valid reasons to oppose unlimited illegal immigration. Racism and xenphobia are not among them, nor even at the forefront of most Americans' concerns: because if racism and xenophobia were at the forefront, then most Americans would oppose ALL immigration, legal immigration too--not just illegal immigration--but they don't.

I think you are viewing too much through a racism/non-racism lens, and are unfairly attributing negative characteristics to the average American. You are also making it sound like there are no good reasons to oppose illegal immigration; when in fact there are, and they are plentiful.