The Immigration Soul of the Republican Party!

Wednesday, April 8 2009

Contributed by Charles Kuck

Recently, contentious debate rages throughout the National Review website, which is the soul for Conservative and Republican thought.  Party to the debate are the inward thinking, anti-immigration members lead by Rep. Lamar Smith and Mark Krikorian against pro-immigrationist, forward thinking Richard Nadler. In the latest article by Nadler, he refutes the “Big Five Anti-Immigrationists” and their reform suggestions involving mass deportation.  The article is fantastic.  Nadler, calmly, clearly, and with a host of empirical evidence, shows the absurdity in the plan, as well as points out how much of a deal breaker this plan would be with Republicans and Hispanics in current, but especially, future generations.  For a long time, I have echoed this plan, however, Nadler goes even further past my own convictions, stating:

Republican candidates will lose virtually all of the Hispanic vote share, which will result in a Republican performance of Republican’s among Hispanics akin to that of African-Americans.  Additionally, if Republican conservatives continues to support mass deportations of illegal immigrants, Republican business support will be erased to a level not only detrimental to us, but also, with that support directly shifting toward favoring the interested of Democrats.

Clearly, Nadler recognizes that Americans, by and large, do not favor idealistic plans of either mass deportations or amnesty.  Americans, however, by and large, are looking for a political solution to an overall societal problem that has negatives, albeit alongside positives, for U.S. citizens. 

Although comments on the site continue to appear on the website, mentioning items such as What part of illegal don’t you understand”,  “all ‘these’ people need to back to the hole they crawled out of,” and even more critical rants, the fact of the matter is that the Republican Party as a whole is in jeopardy here.  In the past, the part of immigrants was the Republican Party.  Remember the “City on a Hill” speech by pro-immigrant Ronald Reagan?  Also, do you remember when he signed into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which since, has been the latest attempts at “amnesty”?  As someone with lifelong ties to the GOP, I view this fight for the immigration soul of the Republican Party one very much worth having.  Our party cannot allow anti-immigrationist radicals and shallow politicians decide the future of the Republican Party.  The GOP needs to stand for an effective, strong and merciful immigration law that CAN be enforced effectively, but which also answers the needs of the American Family, Business and Society. If the Republican Party stops catering to the likes of Lou Dobbs, Lamar Smith, and Mark Krikorian, this is a solution that is highly possible.