Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Immigration Policy Arguments Have Buried the Plot

There are legitimate policy arguments on all sides, but the story of immigration is getting slaughtered in the crossfire.

As the immigration debate hit another low last week, I received the news that my favorite immigrant died: my father-in-law, Paul Gavora.

Still, one of the things about today's immigration debate that breaks my heart is how both sides have lost the plot.

Opinions will differ about the takeaway of Paul's story.

Peter Schramm, another immigrant, and a scholar and friend, often told the story of his family's escape from Hungary after the failed 1958 uprising.

Today the conversation about immigration is so toxic in part because we poisonously disagree about what it means to be an American.

Thanks to the identity politics of the Left and the Right, immigrants are increasingly cast either as imported victims ready-made to join the Coalition of the Oppressed or invading "Takers," "Rapists," and even "Animals." If White House adviser Stephen Miller has his way, the children of immigrants would be seen as a terrorism threat, which might explain why the Trump administration is snatching babies from their mothers at the border.

Of course there's a kernel of truth to both sides' awful shouting points on immigrants, but they crowd out the greater truth: Most immigrants, even those who are in the country illegally, aren't animalistic members of MS-13, nor are they eager to be props for the latest campus debate about intersectionality.

That's the immigration story in America: people leaving - or fleeing - the places of their birth for the freedom to try their best.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/05/immigration-policy-debate-good-arguments-on-all-sides/ 

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