Another Immigration Post

I know I'm hammering immigration. Part of it is because immigrants have stood up and started protesting against the treatment they're getting and this whole issue, which really has been on a long, slow fuse for about 5 years now, has suddenly exploded.

At a New York rally starting at 3 p.m., demonstrators filling the narrow confines of Broadway from City Hall north to the edge of SoHo heard speeches from Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer -- both strongly condemning any attempts to force undocumented immigrants to leave the country -- and from a string of likeminded community and labor leaders. In the crowd were day laborers, hospital orderlies, care-givers to the elderly, pizza cooks, busboys, waiters, bartenders and the simply curious.

It's plain to see right now that Democrats have the upper hand on this issue. The Republicans are having problems, especially because of their alliance with groups like the Eagle Forum. If they're not careful, this generation of Hispanic immigrants (who aren't going away, no matter what law is passed) will turn them into the minority party again and the GOP will become the party of rich white isolationists, as in the New Deal era, and we all know how that turned out for the Republicans. Dan Drezner also has some good commentary on it at his site. The money quote?

Many Americans have become enamored of the European approach to immigration -- perhaps without realizing it. Guest workers, penalties, sanctions and deportation are all a part of Europe's mode of dealing with immigrants. The results of this approach have been on display recently in France, where rioting migrant youths again burned cars last week. Across Europe one sees disaffected, alienated immigrants, ripe for radicalism. The immigrant communities deserve their fair share of blame for this, but there's a cycle at work. European societies exclude the immigrants, who become alienated and reject their societies.