Congress appears headed toward an impasse on immigration reform, with the Senate most likely to approve a process allowing the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants now in America to remain here with only token penalties when it returns from recess.
The Senate will thus be at loggerheads with the House bill making felons of the 11 million and requiring punishment of citizens who knowingly aid the continued residence of illegal immigrants in this country. It is far from clear that efforts by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., to forge a reasonable and passable compromise between Senate and House bills are making any real headway.
There are other seemingly irreconcilable issues in the debate, most notably whether to build a literal security fence along the entire length of our southern border, or to rely instead upon a high-tech “cyber” fence. Proponents of both approaches claim theirs will most effectively stop terrorists from sneaking into the country from Mexico.
At the heart of the immigration debate, however, is this most basic question: What is required to become an American citizen, what is the appropriate process for doing so and who should get the opportunity to pursue it?
We will have more to say in this space on all of these and other key immigration matters throughout this week — particularly with regard to border security, amnesty and the malignant role of ethnic separatism. But for now, let’s focus on what being an American must mean.
We say “must” because, as James Madison told the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, America should be open to all “of republican principle.” This is the sine qua non of immigration reform. Note Madison did not say we should welcome just anybody who makes it across the border, as is demanded these days by multi-cultural zealots who see nothing in America that makes its institutions and core values precious above others, except the chance to prosper materially.
But America means far more than economic opportunity. The essential freedoms that flow from Madison’s republican principles —freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, petition and electoral redress, protected by a government of laws, not men — are why America is unquestionably the greatest nation on Earth. We cannot spread these values abroad if we do not first make them real here at home.
This means those who wish to become U.S. citizens must demonstrate through genuinely rigorous testing procedures that they understand and support these principles and appreciate what has been sacrificed by every generation of Americans to protect and preserve them. Begin with this requirement and it’s easy to distinguish who should — and should not — be eligible for citizenship.
Prominent among the continuing demonstrations have been upside-down U.S. flags and signs proclaiming variations on this “Reconquista” theme: “All Europeans are Illegals on this Continent Since 1492.”
Suffice it to say that demonstrators waving upside-down U.S. flags who seek reconquest of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas have no interest in republican principles and shouldn’t be candidates for citizenship. They are unnecessarily fueling fears that hurt the millions who sincerely want to become American citizens, whatever the cost.
