The illegal immigration debate is becoming farcical. Illegals are arguing among themselves over which nationality should go to the front of their wished-for amnesty line.
Emerald Isle Immigration Center Chairman Brian O'Dwyer told the New York Sun:
It’s a pretty depressing period in terms of immigration reform. If something can be done it would be wonderful.
O’Dwyer should wake up and smell the Irish coffee: American taxpayers think it would be wonderful if they were not stuck with the bill for illegal immigration.
Earlier this week, the Congressional Budget Office released a study on the fiscal impact of illegal immigration. The CBO found:
State and local governments incur costs for providing services to unauthorized immigrants and have limited options for avoiding minimizing those costs…Rules governing many federal programs, as well as decisions handed down by various courts, limit the authority of state and local governments to avoid or constrain the costs of providing services to unauthorized individuals.
Sure, illegals pay taxes but the CBO concluded:
The tax revenues that unauthorized immigrants generate for state and local governments do not offset the total cost of services provided to those immigrants. Most of the estimates found that even though unauthorized immigrants pay taxes and other fees to state and local jurisdictions, the resulting revenues offset only a portion of the costs incurred by those jurisdictions for providing services related to education, health care, and law enforcement.
A national poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies found that less than one percent of blacks identified illegal immigration as the most important issue facing the country. Dr. David A. Bositis said:
The issues that are animating Republicans don’t appear on the radar screen of likely African American primary voters.
While Democrats tiptoe around illegal immigration, history may repeat itself in the 2008 presidential election.
I reminded David that when he polled black voters in 2004, Bush’s approval rating was 22 percent. A negligible percentage considered “morals/moral crisis” the most important issue facing the country. Still, Republicans were able to use opposition to same-sex marriage to increase President Bush’s support among black voters in Ohio from 9 percent in 2000 to 16 percent in 2004.
During a Brookings Institution post-election forum, Thomas E. Mann observed:
Pre-election, we probably underestimated the level of motivation, especially in this core Republican constituency, figuring that most of the anger was on the Democratic side and not really appreciating the extent to which other Americans felt the whole nature of their belief systems and faith and lifestyles were being threatened, and there was an opportunity to act on that. I think Rove understood that. He used issues to help magnify it, and he put together a ground operation that facilitated getting those people to the polls.
Today, African Americans are angry about illegal immigration. From LA to DC, tensions are rising as blacks and illegals compete for jobs, housing, teachers’ attention, and scarce resources for public schools and hospitals.
As Democrats worry about a future voting bloc, African Americans may use their right to vote to tell Democrats who support “comprehensive immigration reform” (read: amnesty): Hasta la vista, baby.
