November 7, 2010
Immigration and enforcement
Philip Geiger compares arguments against hitchhiking with those against illegal immigration (Hitchhikers and Illegal Immigrants American Thinker, November 5, 2010). Continuing with Mr. Geiger's use of analogy, let's compare traffic laws with enforcement of illegal immigration laws once illegal aliens make it past the border.
Enforcement is often belittled because mass deportation of illegal residents is both physically and politically impossible. But it's not necessary for the government to deport every illegal resident to be effective.
Automobile drivers constantly violate our traffic laws and yet our streets are, for the most part, quite orderly. Police can't and don't issue traffic tickets every single time a traffic violation occurs. That's not possible, nor important. What is important, is that citizens understand that government considers traffic safety a priority, and is willing to enforce the laws on a consistent, constant and sizable basis.
Conservatives are merely asking that our government be willing to enforce our immigration laws with the same seriousness as our traffic laws.
Dan Nagasaki is the author of The Beginner's Guide to Conservative Politics and Glenn Doi is a real estate broker in Los Angeles.