White House adopts Heritage immigration proposals
August 14, 2007 | By Nathaniel Ward
The Bush administration has adopted a series of strong immigration measures—the vast majority of them taken directly from The Heritage Foundation’s playbook. This is good news for the country and a victory for conservative ideas.
“These are excellent steps that should be widely supported,” said former Attorney General Ed Meese, who serves as the Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow at Heritage. “And when implemented [they] will be a material step forward in securing our borders and strengthening legal immigration.”
Take our poll: What do you think of the White House’s immigration proposals?
Heritage scholar Matthew Spalding, who helps coordinate our immigration efforts with Meese, argues that “this initiative is a massive and great step forward.”
He says the plan would enforce laws already on the books. It would step up border security, crack down on the employment of illegal immigrants, provide incentives for legal immigration and strengthen the assimilation of legal immigrants into American culture.
“These kinds of initiatives, these reforms, are things that Heritage analysts have written about and strongly support,” Spalding said. “We really like what we see.”
Immigration has been a key success for Heritage this year. Not only did our experts explain to Congress the pernicious consequences of Sen. Kennedy’s backroom amnesty deal—which was ultimately defeated—but now they have scored another victory by helping advance common-sense reforms at the White House.
See all media coverage of Heritage’s work on the amnesty bill
Heritage supports an immigration policy that will strengthen national security, uphold the rule of law, emphasize legal immigration and citizenship and benefit the American economy. We will continue to work with the White House and Congress to ensure further immigration reforms uphold these essential principles.
A friend to conservatives steps aside
Yesterday, longtime Bush administration adviser Karl Rove announced he was retiring from the White House at the end of the month.
“We didn’t agree on every issue,” Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner said on hearing the news, “but Karl deserves praise for his strong commitment to conservative principles—and for his unquestionable talent at putting those principles into action.”
“Karl was always willing to listen to alternative views and to seriously weigh their merits—a rare trait in Washington. Moreover, he was willing to be convinced if the arguments against his position were strong enough.”
As one of the Bush administration’s top strategists, Feulner continued, Rove “showed a welcome eagerness to tackle big ideas. He drove the debate over Social Security reform, for example, and he pushed to give individuals more choice in health care.”
Magazine cites Heritage’s importance
Another mark of The Heritage Foundation’s impact is a new ranking in GQ magazine of the most important men in Washington. Heritage President Ed Feulner is among the select.
The magazine explains:
Since taking control in 1977, Feulner has overseen Heritage’s growth from a piddly nine-person policy shop into what South Carolina senator Jim DeMint now calls “the most important organization, to me, in the country.” Heritage is the powerhouse of right-wing think tanks—and thanks to its Reaganite roots, the one most likely to outlast the Bush era. “They’re into more of a commonsense limited-government conservatism than the big-government conservatism we’ve experimented with the last few years,” DeMint says.
Back to basics on education
Heritage education experts Dan Lips and Evan Feinberg argue that No Child Left Behind is eerily similar to unsound big-government proposals floated by Bill Clinton. It’s time for conservatives to repudiate the program and adopt an education initiative based on conservative principles.
One such program introduced by Congressional conservatives, they explain, “would give states freedom from federal bureaucracy and red tape if they agree to establish academic goals and maintain a consistent, transparent testing system over time to determine whether students are learning.”
“President Bush was right when he said that the federal government should be a ‘limited partner, not a general partner’ in education. The time has come for him and Republicans in Congress to return to their principles on education reform, rather than continuing to champion Bill Clinton’s education strategy.”
Defending talk radio against liberal attacks
As liberals step up their efforts to regulate the media in order to silence conservative voices, The Heritage Foundation has launched a campaign to defend talk radio.
Find out more at DefendTalkRadio.com.
In other news
- The Bush administration has reiterated its commitment to an all-volunteer military, and rightly so.
- Columnist George Will looks at how liberals seek to justify their opposition to President Bush’s qualified judicial nominees. While the Left focuses on whether a nominee’s past rulings benefited this or that special interest group, Will points out that “the pertinent question is whether” nominees like Leslie Southwick “sided with the law.”
- Iraq could descend into chaos if American troops withdraw, according to a new Army analysis. For the latest on Iraq, visit Heritage’s Progress in Iraq page.
- Russia continues to demonstrate an aggressive overseas posture, and has begun conducting exercises near American territory.
- Britain “is going crazy with its political correctness and health and safety issues,” says an English clown whose balloon animals were banned because children may be allergic to latex. Fortunately, the country’s Conservatives might be getting the right idea: they have proposed new measures to cut back on red tape and overregulation.
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 Wednesday, August 22 at noon, economist Bruce Caldwell discusses a new edition of Hayek’s Road to Serfdom and the need for free enterprise in a free society.
- On Tuesday, August 28 at noon, author Mark Halpern discusses his new book about the impact of tyrants on history.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. DeEtte Chatterton contributed to this report.
