Dee Perez-Scott misses the point in Obama's Speech

President Obama's speech Tuesday sought to convince the public that the border is as secure as it has ever been and that immigration is necessary for American society and an essential part of this country's heritage. His failure to address the real issues means he doesn’t really understand the problem or is willing to sacrifice anything to achieve re-election. It has not been demonstrated or proven that immigration levels exceeded a million each year is necessary for American society. Our need is limited to skilled labor and migrant farm workers. The overall quota should be reduced to the level of the 1950s or about 250,000 per year exclusive of students, tourists, and migrant farm workers.

Our country’s immigrant past is undeniable but the operative word in that phrase is “past.” When Emma Lazarus penned her famous sonnet posted on the base of the statue of liberty, the U.S. population was about 50 million. Now it has increased six fold to more than 300 million. No reasonable person should cling to outmoded idea that immigration is as essential today as it was in the mid 1880s. It is a part of our history but like slavery and child labor, it is a thing of the past and the continued reference to our immigrant past as a basis for current policy lacks credibility.

The president seems intent on changing the narrative about immigration now that his re-election campaign is underway. In recent years, the public has become more aware of the threat of excessive legal immigration and the lack of internal enforcement. The president has stumbled in trying to reclaim the momentum by making pro-immigrant arguments. He has spoken about the search for “that elusive middle ground” on immigration reform but appears to impose a pre-condition of another mass amnesty. This is viewed by many as a non-starter for negotiations on immigration reform.

Organizations that favor a tighter immigration policy dismissed the president's speech as a political effort to regain the Hispanic vote. "In his effort to shore up support from his political base, President Obama is choosing to reignite a divisive debate about amnesty for illegal aliens," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
What to do with those who are already here remains one of the biggest questions of the immigration debate. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, 11.2 million "unauthorized" immigrants live in the United States, equal to 3.7% of the nation's population. The figure follows a two-year decline from the peak of 12 million reached in 2007. Even if it is true, this is hardly heartening news. From the last amnesty in 1986 to today, the compound rate of increase in the number of illegal aliens present in the U.S. is between 9 and 10% per year. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to extrapolate that trend to mid century. Welcome to Mexico Norte!