Monday, April 10, 2006

Arnold, quoting Reagan, on immigration

Governor Schwarzenegger in today's OpinionJournal.com on immigration:

"President Reagan memorably described his 'shining city on a hill' as a place that 'hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.'"

"I urge [Congress] to agree on legislation based on a simple philosophy: control of the border . . . and compassion for the immigrant."

"Building a wall sounds good and a fence may do some good in certain places. But every wall can be scaled with a ladder. Brick walls and chain link fences will not stop the desires and dreams of a father who is desperate to feed his family. And making it a felony to cross the border crosses the line into pure politics. Instead, we need to bring the 12 million undocumented workers out of the shadows and into the light. I support a temporary worker program to allow American businesses to hire foreign workers when no one else will do the job. How ironic it is to hear some of the same voices who complain about the outsourcing of jobs also complain about the use of immigrant workers here in America."

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I always wondered why is it was, if all the jobs are going to Mexico that all the Mexicans are coming up here?

And he is right about the wall, you can not corrupt a wall..but you can over it or under it.

linearthinker said...

Thanks for the Arnold-Reagan connection on this.

It reinforces my thinking.

Border control, including a physical barrier is essential as a starting point. Only with control of the flood of illegals can a sensible and humane program for dealing with the rest of the issues have any hope of succeeding. We don't even have a clue how many people we're trying to deal with.

Congress has been winking at this problem for over 20 years, and is the biggest culprit. The solutions are not complicated.

It's finding the will among 500-plus feckless politicians that's the problem. The agencies, ICE, INS, Border Patrol, etc, charged with enforcing the border and immigration issues are, for the most part,capable, but can only perform effectively if Congress and the Administration let them.

(where'd that extra 'r' come from?)