We know who to blame in the immigration debate
Feb 1, 2018, 6:56 AM | Updated: 8:35 am
(AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
(AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
With the immigration debate reaching a climax, the following statement by President Bill Clinton in his 1995 State of the Union address is circulating again.
The president is measuring success differently
“All Americans are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country.”
A listener told me President Trump should’ve just played this clip Tuesday night.
“It is wrong and self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws and we must do more to stop it.”
Clinton signed a tough new immigration law the very next year. And to think a generation of talk show hosts made their careers calling him a liberal!
Just one problem, his tough law backfired. In the 10 years after he signed it, the illegal population exploded, increasing from 5 million to 12 million. This was partly because the law required that immigrants caught without their papers be banished for at least three years.
Before the law, they could come here, work, then go back to live with relatives. After the law, it was safer just to stay and try to bring relatives here.
The other reason the law backfired was due to America’s long love affair with cheap workers who are afraid to complain. That made even Republicans reluctant to enforce it.
So now we know who to blame: Everybody!
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Tune in to KIRO Newsradio weekdays at 5am for Dave Ross on Seattle's Morning News.
