Real immigration

From the Houston Chronicle, Immigration "blog"...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry and a dozen other state chief executives, including California's Arnold Schwarzenegger, are urging Congress to rev up the immigration debate again.

In a letter today to the House and Senate leadership, 13 governors of both parties complain that their states are being crimped by a lack of highly skilled workers -- a problem they say could be solved by bringing in more educated legal immigrants....

Specifically, the governors are calling for an increase in permanent legal immigration and a boost in temporary visas, known as H-1B visas, for highly skilled foreign workers....

While Democrats, immigrant-rights groups and religious organizations were intent on retaining the current focus on family reunification, Republicans and business interests argued U.S. competitiveness would be enhanced by bringing in more educated, skilled immigrants.

First of all it's not "religious organizations" but Liberal groups posing as religious organizations. Most religious organization are not calling for the kind of wholesale anarchy Liberal groups are demanding. The few so-called "religious organizations" that are, function more to promote a Liberal social agenda than any religion, unless of course, like Ann Coulter, you want to consider Liberalism a religion—a valid view—in which case it should read, "While the Liberal religion is intent...".

Anyway...

It could be argued that Perry and Schwarzenegger have political motives, since skilled immigrants would more likely vote Republican if they became citizens, while unskilled immigrants (legal or illegal) tend to vote Democrat, regardless of whether they are citizens or not. But whether there are any political motivations or not, the Governors who wrote the letter are aiming towards a truly altruistic goal—skilled people to fill needed jobs—while their opponents' motive is questionable. Family reunification is a canard since that reunification can happen legally in their nation of origin, much more easily than illegally in the US.

Posted by Danny Carlton at September 12, 2007 8:06 AM