May 16, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward

Heritage leads the immigration debate

If you think the news that the Senate’s immigration bill could let in 100 million new immigrants is a big story, you’re not alone. The major media is taking notice (watch Fox News’ report on the paper or listen to Rush Limbaugh’s discussion), and our elected officials are paying attention.

The White House is certainly keeping an eye on Heritage’s immigration research. At a press conference today, Press Secretary Tony Snow answered questions about Robert Rector’s study on the impact of the Senate’s amnesty bill.

“You’re talking about a Heritage Foundation study that talks about a Senate bill that may or may not be passed in its present form,” he replied. But though he was cautious about the study’s conclusions, he also insisted that White House policy experts are taking a close look at the paper. “We are taking a look right now of the methodology of the Heritage study, so I don’t want to get too deep into the details, but we’re taking a look at it.”

A strong speech on immigration

“President Bush was good last night, strong on border issues and powerful on the idea of assimilation,” Heritage’s Matthew Spalding wrote on National Review Online.

In his address, the President reaffirmed the need to secure the borders:

First, the United States must secure its borders. This is a basic responsibility of a sovereign nation. It is also an urgent requirement of our national security. Our objective is straightforward: The border should be open to trade and lawful immigration, and shut to illegal immigrants, as well as criminals, drug dealers, and terrorists.

His major proposal was a sound one: deploy National Guard troops to the border to assist the Border Patrol. “This proposed policy would provide some immediate relief to a pressing problem,” Heritage’s James Carafano writes. “Even though current National Guard forces are deployed overseas and others are needed at home for disaster response, the number required for support at our nation’s border is neither unreasonable nor an undue burden on the force.”

He also made a strong statement about the need to assimilate new immigrants:

The success of our country depends upon helping newcomers assimilate into our society, and embrace our common identity as Americans. Americans are bound together by our shared ideals, an appreciation of our history, respect for the flag we fly, and an ability to speak and write the English language… When immigrants assimilate and advance in our society, they realize their dreams, they renew our spirit, and they add to the unity of America.

He is to be applauded for these words. As Spalding wrote earlier this year, America needs to implement “a deliberate and self-confident policy of patriotic assimilation,” a policy like those America has used to great success in the past. This program must welcome “newcomers while insisting that they learn and embrace America’s civic culture and political institutions, thereby forming one nation from many peoples.”

Amnesty is amnesty

“The problem is that, no matter how many times he denies it, he favors amnesty,” Spalding cautioned.

The President’s proposal is remarkably similar to the 1986 immigration bill, Spalding explained. Both bills mandate that current illegal immigrants fulfill several conditions, such as fees and English requirements, to be eligible for citizenship. But there’s one crucial difference between the 1986 bill and the President’s proposals yesterday, he wrote: “Reagan and everyone at the time discussed it for what it was: amnesty.”

Instead of wasting time with a program that will encourage further illegal immigration and reward those who violated the law, we should instead focus on securing the border, strengthening enforcement and crafting a functional and secure visa program to allow legal immigrants to enter the country.

One way to prevent voter fraud

Consider:

• In 2002 in South Dakota, authorities were called in to investigate hundreds of cases of voter fraud related to the Senate election. Dozens of voter registration applications were even submitted in the same handwriting, suggesting intent to cast fraudulent votes.

• Last year in Washington state, a judge decided that some 1,678 illegal votes were cast in the 2004 gubernatorial election. The election was decided by 129 votes—after two recounts during which hundreds of new ballots were “discovered.”

• And now Maryland has a new “reform” proposal that would allow voters to cast ballots anywhere in the state—and there’s no way to detect if someone has cast multiple votes until well after the fact.

There is a common-sense solution to ensure that each person votes only once, as Heritage President Ed Feulner explains in an article in The Chicago Sun-Times:

To prevent fraud in elections, the federal government should set some minimum standards. After all, the Constitution gives states the initial power to establish the "times, places and manner" of holding elections, but it specifically permits Congress to change those election procedures.

A good first step would be to require every voter to show a photo ID.

This identification, he continues, would include a person’s photograph, name, address and signature—helping to ensure that only someone legally entitled to vote there may do so.

The principle of “one person, one vote” is essential to our republic, ensuring that we can trust that an election is sound and fairly decided. The government should not be complicit in undermining that trust and should do what it can to restore it.

Bush administration holds the line against union demands

The Bush administration is on the verge of a tremendous victory over the labor union representing the nation’s 14,500 federal air traffic controllers. The union, as Heritage’s Ron Utt explains, is holding out for a new contract that would cost taxpayers an extra $2 billion over five years—even though the average controller takes home $166,000 in salary and benefits each year, with some earning as much as $200,000 a year.

Because the Bush administration has refused to submit to these demands, the sides have reached an impasse. Under the terms of the existing contract, the FAA will be allowed to impose its own terms on the union if the impasse holds and Congress does not intervene. Assuming the free-spending Congress does not intervene, the administration’s latest offer will become the new contract.

And if this measure is successful, Utt says, the administration should pursue an even more ambitious agenda for cost savings and improved service through privatization.

In other news

• European governments have devised a new “carrot” to keep Iran from developing its own nuclear program: simply give the radical Islamic republic a nuclear reactor. American diplomats said they remain skeptical.
• Presidential adviser Karl Rove said yesterday the war in Iraq is the cause of the President’s low approval ratings. He did not cite issues like runaway spending and an unsecured border as possible causes of public discontent—even though Americans rank those as their top issues.
• Several days of torrential rain have left parts of New England under water as rivers have crested their banks. Officials are worried that several dams in the area might break.

Coming up at Heritage

To attend these or any other Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org. All times are Eastern.

• On Thursday, May 18 at noon, Heritage’s Baker Spring will take part in a panel on Iran’s nuclear weapons program with Geoffrey Kemp of the Nixon Center and Henry Sokolski of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center.
• On Wednesday, May 24 at 11:00am, Col. Virgil T. Deal, commander of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, will join Brig. Gen. William Leszczynski of the American Battlefield Monuments Commission and Joyce Raezer of the National Military Families Association to discuss how to sustain the morale, character, and esprit de corps of America’s Armed Forces.

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.

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