Immigration is a complicated issue and has been a matter of contention since the founding of the republic.((Remember the Adams-era Alien and Sedition Acts from American history? The Sedition Act got the most attention, but three of the four laws, one of which remains in effect, were aimed at non-citizens.)) We cannot even agree on terminology. The phrase “illegal aliens,” common a few decades ago, is criticized on the ground that “no person is illegal.” (True, but the phrase does emphasize that these people’s entry into, or continued presence in, the United States is contrary to law, whereas the substitute “undocumented aliens” suggests that it is simply a question of lost paperwork, much like not having your car’s registration and insurance card in your glove compartment when stopped by the police.) Now even the word “alien” is unacceptable and being replaced by “non-citizen.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For years some states, like Texas, have been pushing for the federal government fully to enforce existing immigration laws while presidents (who are constitutionally responsible to enforce those laws) decline to do so because they disagree with them from a policy perspective.((I too would prefer a more open immigration system than current law provides, but as the hypothetical reader of this blog may have gathered, I am always concerned about process issues. Immigration policy is a matter for legislation by Congress, subject to the presidential veto. Picking and choosing what laws to enforce encourages disrespect for all law.)) Many cities have declared themselves sanctuaries and refuse to cooperate in immigration enforcement activities. But these cities do not bear the same burden as do communities along the border. These “sanctuary cities” are able to pretend to the moral high ground because, to put it in economic terms, someone else is paying<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thousands of migrants cross the border. Once in the country, even if caught by immigration officials, they claim asylum (which will be granted to so very few that the claim itself is essentially a fiction)((Asylum protects those with a well-founded fear of persecution, not the vast majority who simply want the better life they foresee in the United States.)) and are released until they receive a hearing. In the meantime they are, as the Southwest Airlines ad puts it, “free to move about the country.” Texas Governor Greg Abbot has responded in a politically brilliant way by creating “Operation Lone Star” in which willing migrants((See this CNN story: Texas is bussing migrants to New York and DC for free — many want to go <\/a>.)) are put on busses that take them to Washington, New York, and, more recently, Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While mouthing platitudes about being welcoming communities, the mayors of these destination cities are seething about having to bear the economic cost of food and shelter for the migrants. The mayor of Washington complains that the federal government will not mobilize the National Guard; the mayor of Chicago created her own bussing program and sent the migrants to a hotel in a Republican suburb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And what would a blog post be without a complaint about the professional media? It’s hard to find facts as most of the coverage is either partisan (in the sense of pro or anti immigration) or more interested in political conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jay Bohn<\/p>\n\n\n\n September 15, 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Immigration is a complicated issue and has been a matter of contention since the founding of the republic.((Remember the Adams-era Alien and Sedition Acts from American history? The Sedition Act got the most attention, but three of the four laws, one of which remains in effect, were aimed at non-citizens.)) We cannot even agree on … Continue reading “Border State Busing Exposes “Sanctuary City” Hypocrisy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-journalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":609,"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions\/609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bohn.org\/wpmocha\/peanutgallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}