George Will and Hugh Hewitt, despite the mounting evidence that almost no Democrat will enforce existing immigration laws, are still plugging amnesty for the latest wave of illegal aliens. Glenn Beck, for his part, handed a talking point to Dick Durbin. Where are these (usually) conservative figures coming from?

The way Hewitt recently pitched amnesty is to share his wishful thinking with Politico. He’s bought the nonsense that we face a “refugee crisis.” There are extremely dangerous cities in Central America, but can’t the illegal aliens find a safe place somewhere in the rest of their countries? If not, why wouldn’t they simply stop in Mexico, if they were just worried about their safety? The fact is they come here because they think they’ll be allowed to stay, a misconception that was fed – in part – by Republican pandering after the 2008 election.

Hugh Hewitt should know better. He broadcasts from California, where illegal immigration (and even legal immigration) has fundamentally transformed that state into a one-party regime with strong resemblance to a Third World economic model. Some in Hewitt’s position, as a conservative in California, may think it’s time to make the ultimate pander, in a last-ditch effort to curry favor with a population group that has never embraced conservatism. But that only makes sense if you’ve essentially given up on immigration enforcement. Instead of signing up for the same fate that befell California, many Americans would choose to take a different path and prevent the California model from impacting their states.

To get a sense for Hewitt’s grasp of the situation, here is his proposal for the older “children”:

Those 17 and 18 should be offered a choice: English school followed by the military for four years or a ticket home.

I’m sure the military would appreciate being the alternative to deportation for tens of thousands of people whose backgrounds and motives, not to mention national allegiances, are completely unknown. Hewitt’s piece is worth reading to see just how permissive some conservatives are willing to be in the face of rampant disrespect for our nation’s laws.

George Will also floated a few bad ideas. In a smoke and mirrors trick that would make Nancy Pelosi blush, Will said, “We’ve handled what Emma Lazarus called ‘the wretched refuse of your teeming shores’ a long time ago, and a lot more people than this.” Will is extremely misleading in saying that America handled “a lot more people than this.” The graph below shows that the foreign-born percentage of our population is approaching an unprecedented level.

It does not do justice to American history, or to the American people, to compare those who entered illegally with those who entered legally.

Will also tosses in a bit of statistical legerdemain. “We have 3,141 counties in this country. That would be 20 per county,” he says. Here, Will is deceiving with statistics. Will knows that the illegal aliens will not be distributed evenly across all of the thousands of counties in America. Rather, they will be dumped en masse in a small number of cities and towns. Some of those towns have fought back, when they’re given notice that they’ll be used as a storage area for illegal aliens.

Will also, for some bizarre reason, uses the word “assimilation,” even though there are very few people in a position of influence advocating assimilation -- not in political, academic, legal, or media circles. “The idea that we can’t assimilate these eight-year-old criminals with their teddy bears is preposterous,” he says. Will is evidently too isolated or self-deceived to grasp what assimilation means today. It is, first and foremost, an affront to multiculturalism, which is a state-promoted dogma that commands complete obedience. How dubious for Will to speak as if the process of assimilation is still a vivid part of the immigrant experience in America. The few people who push for assimilation will not be the ones educating or socializing the newly arrived immigrants. Besides, Will would never live anywhere near the illegal aliens, so he has no inkling of the impact that they will have on any given community.

Will seems curiously unaware of what kind of country we have today. Modern immigrants benefit from affirmative action, “civil rights,” and the welfare state, so why on earth would they choose stingy pasty white conservatism? Why would they choose assimilation when that would stifle their diversity? I’ve heard a lot of people say, “Diversity is our strength.” I don’t hear as many say, “Assimilation is our strength.”

Finally, Will suggested that we could prevent more illegal immigration by reducing the amount of illegal drug use in America. We’ll get right on that George, after we prevent people from falling down by reducing the effect of gravity. I take it Will would have us pass amnesty first, then wait for the miraculous anti-drug wave to sweep across the nation; that anti drug reform spirit that we have no reason to ever expect.

Last but not least, there is Beck, with his soccer balls and teddy bears. Who could object to soccer balls and teddy bears, right? It seems so innocent and even gratifying to the religious impulses of some people -- those who are deeply committed to Beck’s Biblical interpretations. But we should consider the possibility that not every deed called “charity” has a positive outcome. As with all decisions, it behooves us to consider the consequences before going off on a lark.

Imagine what life is like for an illegal alien child who has in his or her hands a door prize from Glenn Beck. There are a few possibilities. First, the child is deported with a teddy bear. The child’s impression of America will be largely shaped by deportation. The teddy bear may seem like a sick joke in that event. We don’t want you here, but have a teddy bear to take home with you. What has Beck accomplished under that scenario? Another possibility is that the children take advantage of our lax immigration laws and disappear into the country, which is happening with appalling frequency. Maybe they’ll remember Glenn Beck’s teddy bear. But they’ll also remember that Beck wanted to deport them, and that he represents an ideology that generally wants to enforce immigration laws. On top of that, the “refugees” will almost certainly be more influenced by Critical Race Theory than by teddy bears or the Glenn Beck radio show. What good does the “charity” do under that scenario?

It’s just very hard to imagine how giving door prizes to people for breaking our laws will have a positive result for our country. The only benefit that’s going to accrue to anyone seems to be the psychic benefit for the people giving the “charity.” We already know that Dick Durbin turned the “charity” act into a wedge to marginalize conservatives. That’s what happens when you cede the emotional argument to leftists.

Hewitt, Will, and Beck have done much good overall by spreading a conservative message. However, they are part of an Elite establishment, so they deserve no deference. They do not have access to special wisdom. The establishment could do something positive for the country by standing up for the interests of the Forgotten Man and Woman -- the American citizen who works, abides by the law, and hasn’t gotten a break lately.

For more and more people, the American dream is evaporating. Not even STEM workers have assurances about their livelihood. Wages are being driven down by poorly educated, low-skilled immigrants, while deficits are driven up by the seemingly endless appetite those immigrants have for the welfare state. This is a challenge that will require conservatives to do what should come naturally, which is to stand for law and order, unburdened by misguided sentiments that only open the door to unintended consequences.

  John Bennett (MA, University of Chicago, Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences '07) is a writer whose work has appeared in The Daily Caller, Townhall.com, World Net Daily, Human Events, Liberty Unyielding, Accuracy in Media, and FrontPage Magazine, among others.  He has appeared as a featured guest on the Laura Ingraham, Jerry Doyle, and Lars Larson programs. Follow @Jthomasbennett