Media Appearances - WHO NEWSRADIO 1040

January 2013

January 8, 2013-   Was a guest on “Mickelson in the Morning” show.  Host introduced the segment with general immigration comments and asked what I thought should be done.  I referred to my studies that show successful immigration policies always include three guidelines – agreed-upon national interest(s) to be supported by immigration; unambiguous and uniformly-enforced laws to support that interest; and effective assimilation of immigrants.

Host asked “what do you think would be a successful immigration policy?”  After observing that success is the degree to which a defined goal is achieved, I opined that my successful immigration policy would begin with “establishing that the primary purpose of immigration is to enhance the economic well-being of the nation”.  Host asked whether that would include cheap labor, and I said “yes, for specified situations,” referring for example to the bracero programs of the 1950s, what they achieved and what happened when they stopped.  Host described the Iowa situation wherein thousands of workers have been imported because the political classes want it; one side gets new voters, and the other side gets cheap labor.

He feels “there doesn’t seem to be any solution.”  I agreed, “as long as we focus on narrow particulars and refuse to follow proven guidelines.  But if we do comprehensive immigration right …”  Host, broke in with “who’s we?”  He brought up Iowa Representative Steve King’s efforts to close loopholes – especially as regards anchor babies, and how he’s been excoriated by the left and mainstream media for his “heartlessness”.  We discussed King’s bills and the impossibility of getting them past the Senate.

Host referred to the DREAM Act.  I opined that the proposal may have some merits, but the President has bypassed Congress on the issue.  He’s issued executive directions that protect virtually all the subject youths from accountability under the law.  He’s used his ‘parole authority’, which explicitly applies on a case-by-case basis, to exempt whose classes of illegals from the law (we discussed at length).  Host observed that similar distortion of refugee law is bringing masses of immigrants into Iowa.

Lastly, we discussed the preference that immigration law gives to ‘family’, how the law as written seems to put a numerical limit on the number of relatives that can be brought in.  In fact, demographic realities have exploded the influx of ‘close family’ – in 1965 such totaled about 30,000 annually, now it’s running at almost 500,000 per year.  Granting citizenship to classes of illegal aliens will accelerate this number.

Jan doesn’t think the problem will be fixed, because the political class wants it to stay the way it is.  I suggested it can be changed, if Representatives and Senators are swamped with letters, e-mails and phones calls demanding that it be fixed, with the right comprehensive policy. Listen to the Interview:Podcast - January 8, 2013

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