Civil Candor

High profile officials pushing unpopular policies have a habit of telling on themselves. You know when White House mouthpieces are trying to pull a fast one when the slogans start pouring out. Whether the issue is job creation, spending cuts, or dealing with illegal immigration, when you start to hear slogans, you are being fed a story.

Janet Napolitano chose American University as the site for Wednesday’s speech justifying the Obama administration’s immigration policy, recasting the strategy as stepped-up enforcement by an agency out of resources. The Homeland Security Secretary fell back on favorite administration taglines like “nation of immigrants and nation of laws,” “broken immigration system,” and “patchwork of laws.” [1] We have heard enough rationalizing from Ms. Napolitano to know where she is headed before the first word comes out. The use of “historic effort,” “historic drop,” “historic levels,” “historic results,” and “historical trends” [2] in one short address tells us everything we need to know.

This is the administration’s position on immigration enforcement as conveyed by Secretary Napolitano:

While doing everything we can to encourage Congressional action, we have undertaken a historic effort to secure the border and enforce our immigration laws in a cohesive way that is smart, effective, and that maximizes the resources that Congress has given us to do this job. [2]

What this means is that if you are a criminal immigrant, the U.S. will try to deport you. If you are not, you get to stay.

Without relying on slogans, party politics, agenda, campaign rhetoric, or any of the other drivers of the nonsense we hear from the White House and Cabinet officials, here are four simple facts about immigration enforcement:

1. American is not a nation of illegal immigrants.

In addition to the usual, hackneyed line about being a nation of immigrants, Napolitano remarked that “Our very founding is rooted in immigration.” [3] At the time of our founding, there was no U.S. government. We have a government now, and we have immigration laws. Taxpayers pay our government to enforce those laws. Those who come here illegally should be thrown out.

2. Our government is refusing to enforce our immigration laws.

We can deport illegal immigrants whenever we want to. Instead, the Obama administration has decided to focus on criminal immigrants. This is not a resource issue. Resources are always found for areas deemed important. This is an issue dictated by the Obama reelection campaign’s need to make good on past promises, and by a Democratic Party that demands legalization.

3. Rounding up criminal immigrants is not a victory. It is a sign of failure.  

Criminal immigrants should be deported after they are apprehended, while we have them in custody. Napolitano talks about scarce resources, but if our government had done its job to begin with, we would not have to track these individuals down a second or third time because we released them. This is not a difficult concept. When an illegal immigrant is identified, criminal or not, they should be removed. If there are loopholes in the law that allow criminal immigrants to escape, the law should be changed, not used as an excuse to stop deporting non-criminals.

4. President Obama is forcing states and localities to bear the cost of his immigration policy.

The Obama administration has done everything in its power to prevent states from passing and enforcing their own laws to protect residents from illegal immigrants and the costs of illegal immigration. This is a win-win for the president. He can tell supporters he is protecting illegals from a hopelessly flawed system and overzealous states, while broke state and local governments bear the costs of federal permissiveness.

There you have it, short, simple, and cleansed of slogans. To Janet Napolitano’s credit, her line about the southwest border being “open for business” [4] appears to have some validity. Just ask Eric Holder.

1..U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Secretary Napolitano’s Remarks on Smart Effective Border Security and Immigration Enforcement. October 5, 2011. http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/speeches/20111005-napolitano-remarks-border-strategy-and-immigration-enforcement.shtm, October 6, 2011.

2..Ibid.

3..Ibid.

4..Ibid.