Restrictionists Going Nuts Over Immigration Reform, Again.
The House GOP, it appears, is finally getting serious about doing something lame (as Ed Krayewski explained this morning) to reform our inhumane and irrational immigration system. So, naturally, restrictionists have started spilling vast quantities of fake bile and warning GOP leaders of dire consequences if they don't cease and desist.
The peerless (thank god) Ann Coulter got the ball rolling. She didn't take the tack of Republican "pussies" who limit their opposition to illegal immigration. No siree. She wants a war on all immigrants – even the good, high skilled variety – lest they ruin America forever. How? By voting against Republicans. "Immigrants — all immigrants — have always been the bulwark of the Democratic Party," she harrumphs.
Setting aside the fact that 45-plus percent of Hispanics voted for George W. Bush, what's bad for Republicans is ipso facto bad for America? Got it.
Famous nativist and Zullu-basher Pat Buchanan chimed in on Laura Ingraham's radio show that House Speaker John Boehner would sing his "last hurrah" if he pushed for reform. "You will have a war inside the Republican party — a Balkan war — this year," he snorted.
So the way for Republicans to maintain peace is by continuing a war on immigrants? Got that too.
Implacable immigration foe Sen. Jeff Sessions accused the House's leadership of – horror of horrors! – consulting with "Democrat activists" before their own obstructionist members in their "rush to pass an immigration bill."
Rush.
A reform effort that has been in the works since at least 2006 (when George W. Bush first proposed) is a rush job? The good senator obviously has a watch in geological time. But, whatever.
Meanwhile, the National Review predictably declared any reform effort that did not first erect a Berlin Wall on the Rio Grande as a "fraud" on the American people.
Less predictably, however, the Weekly Standard, which used to once have sensible views on immigration, seconded that sentiment claiming that reformers were playing "skeptics for fools" by even considering any form of legalization before the borders are sealed.
Such pre-emptive biliousness against reforms has worked well for restrictionists in the past. But how long can they go on without getting acid reflux?
My pieces on how Republicans can stay the party of limited government and still win minorities a la Canada's Tory Party here and here.
Post Script: For a deeper discussion of each and every tired argument that restrictionists are trotting out for the nth time, please buy Reason's immigration e-book, Humane and Pro-Growth: Reason's Guide to Immigration Reform, for the bargain price of $2.99.
