Ex-CA Senate Dem candidate tees off on immigration ‘reform’

April 17, 2013

By Chris Reed

Mickey Kaus, the Los Angeles journalist and author who ran against Sen. Barbara Boxer in the 2010 Democratic primary, has emerged as the sharpest critic of the immigration overhaul expected to emerge this week in the U.S. Senate:

“Rubio repeatedly said it would be ‘cheaper, faster and easier’ for illegal immigrants to go back home, wait 10 years, and apply for a green card (under current law) than to go through the longer ‘alternative’ green card path created by his amnesty bill. That’s absurd. If Rubio’s bill passes, how many illegal immigrants are going to go home and wait 10 years versus accepting the bill’s more-or-less immediate legalization and then waiting to get their green cards?  The answer is a number approaching zero. Why? Because under Rubio’s bill they will get to do the waiting while living and working legally in the United States. That’s certainly easier than ‘self-deporting’ for ten years under current law.”

Kaus opposes legalizing the illegal immigrants in this nation not on Pat Buchanan nativist grounds, or on the grounds that they shouldn’t be rewarded for breaking the law. Instead, the author of “The End of Equality” primarily objects to legalization because of the negative effects it would have on adult Americans with few job skills. It’s an interesting take and one that not many Democrats share.

Republicans, of course, have their own dilemma with immigration. But Kaus believes Democrats should do some soul-searching as well on the topic.