President George Bush has one major policy victory for which he has not received sufficient credit. Illegal immigration has been one of the most contentious issues in American policy in recent years. Brilliant minds have tried to put together some compromise that would stem the flow of illegal immigrants.
But President Bush has developed a policy that has proved effective -- a policy that no one had even considered. The Wall Street Journal today reports that illegal immigration has suddenly dropped. By reducing the number of domestic jobs, President Bush has cut of illegal immigration at its source -- the economic equivalent of the Gordian knot.
Other less enlightened people tried to develop policies to increase the number of jobs, but only Bush realized that employment has pernicious effects, earning him an exalted place in the Pantheon of economic policy.
I wonder if the 300k deportees last year were also contributing factors. We're deporting people like there's no tomorrow. Plenty of them are legal immigrants who managed to fall just foul enough to earn a trip back to their country of origin.
ReplyDeleteOuch! But let's give GWB some credit. He wanted real immigration reform. He just didn't want it enough to take on the we hate foreigners crowd in his own party.
ReplyDelete