One Wendy R. Leibowitz wrote WaPo a corker of a letter to the editor (Saturday's "FreeForAll"), managing to show how shallow and lazy our press and Congress are simultaneously:
I am tired of reporting by anecdote.Sing it, Sister.
"The Hard Road" [Magazine, March 12] devoted a substantial amount of time, space and detail to the story of an undocumented immigrant from Nicaragua. It was thorough and poignant, but it could have been written 10 years ago. Heck, change Daniel Rodriguez's nationality to Russian, Irish, Scandinavian, Polish, Chinese, Greek or Italian, and a similar article could have been written 100 years ago.Can I get an "Amen"?
Post readers know about the struggles of immigrants. What we don't know enough about are proposed solutions to the problems of illegal immigration.
Various immigration bills are pending in Congress. On the same day that The Post was telling us the story of Rodriguez, the Senate Judiciary Committee was considering immigration legislation. The Post said nothing about it in that article and made scant mention of it in the days that followed.
The March 22 news story "Immigration Debate Heats Up" spent only a few paragraphs describing a bill the House approved in December. It then reverted to the predictable reactions from the Hispanic community.
I am so tired, too, of reporting by "he said, she said." Can we know what is in the dang bills for a change, before we cut to people's opinions of them? Especially since most of those opining don't know what's in the bills either?
I'd like to hear what solutions home builders, developers and restaurateurs think would be workable within their industries, since they rely heavily on illegal immigrants. What effect would using only legal labor have on the prices of new homes or the price of a meal? I'd like to know how various immigration proposals compare with what we've tried in the past --lotteries, amnesty-- and what other countries are doing. I'd like more details about legislation.
And just to keep all my immigration stuff for today in one post:
- Here's Mark Steyn's latest on the subject. He demands equal rights for non-undocumented workers. (curtsy: Ninme).
- And I think you'll find this post interesting as regards a "Christian" response to immigration. A commenter replies to it:
It cannot be "compassionate" to expose those poor strangers who have just entered the country as immigrants to greater threats from illegal terrorists or, maybe more important, to the undermining of our society from UNLIMITED immigration without time and effort for assimilation. Surely the overwhelming majority who enter the US do so to enjoy the material and nonmaterial benefits of freedom. It’s a hoax to first invite them in, and then to undermine the principles that form the rationale for their immigrating in the first place. To do so is to say that once you have entered the US, we will stop being concerned about your well-being as a resident or future citizen of America.
