by James Buchanan

For a long time, there were only a few anti-immigrant activists clinging to the fringe of the “mainstream” of American politics. The immigration issue in recent decades is really an issue about race –and for that reason politicians have stayed away from it. The illegal aliens are overwhelmingly Mexicans, who are possibly the least popular Third World race for most Americans. In recent decades our extremely corrupt politicians have allowed a “legal immgrant” flood of Indian, Chinese, Arab and other Third World races. The average White American is no more happy about these non-White legal immigrants than he is about the Mexican illegal aliens. Joe Sixpack would be quite happy to see all immigration shut down and is tired of hearing about “the need for cheap immigrant labor” especially when that cheap immigrant labor is cutting his pay in half. While most politicians speak only about illegal immigration there is an extremely strong undercurrent among voters to cut off all immigration from the Third World regardless of legality.

Among the few people brave enough to speak out about immigration when it was still a high risk topic were Pat Buchanan and Lou Dobbs. Los Angeles radio talk show hosts John and Ken have been attacking the illegal alien problem for years and their radio show has the highest ratings in all of southern California. In the last year an angry mob of politicians and talk show hosts has jumped on the anti-immigration bandwagon.

The Minuteman Project came along at precisely the right time to cause an explosion of support for the anti-illegal immigrant movement. Sean Hannity actually went to the border with the Minutemen to show his admiration and support. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger voiced his enthusiatic support of the Minutemen in defiance of the Bush administration and the liberal California legislature. Some politicians in Arizona and California are now advocating that state police become involved in patrolling the border since the federal government isn’t doing its job.

The biggest loser has been George W. Bush, who clearly still doesn’t get it. Bush called the Minutemen “vigilantes” and continues to gibber away about a possible amnesty or foreign workers’ program that wishfully assumes that illegal alien Mexicans will want to move back to Mexico after being in the US for three years.

While the leadership of the Republican Party continues to fumble this political football, some Democrats may recover the fumble. Pro-labor elements of the Democrat Party have been repeatedly betrayed thanks to NAFTA and GATT, which the Democrat Party supported. Union members would be happy to see illegal (and legal) immigration radically reduced. One Democrat, who has stepped forward and called for a crackdown on illegal immigration is none other than Hillary Clinton.

One political website notes “Little noticed at the time (certainly I had no idea!) back in February 2003 Hillary Clinton came out firmly against illegal immigration. Saying that she is strongly opposed to ‘illegal immigrants,’ New York Sen. Hillary Clinton announced Tuesday that she would support a national identification card for U.S. citizens if other measures to keep illegals out of the country failed. ‘I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants,’ Clinton told WABC Radio’s John Gambling… People have to stop employing illegal immigrants,’ she told WABC… ‘I mean, come up to Westchester, go to Suffolk and Nassau Counties, stand in the street corners in Brooklyn or the Bronx (and) you’re going to see loads of people waiting to get picked up to go do yard work and construction work and domestic work…’ On Wednesday November 17, 2004 Hillary repeated her argument that we should be using more technology to protect our borders. ‘I don’t think that we have protected our borders or our ports or provided our first responders with the resources they need, so we can do more and we can do better,’ Clinton told Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren.”

Hillary Clinton’s objection to illegal immigration is most likely an opportunistic attempt to take advantage of Republican gutlessness and wrong-headedness on this issue. It seems highly unlikely she is sincere. Is it really worth it to the Republicans to antagonize the vast majority of Americans just to provide cheap illegal labor for a few construction companies and unbelievably lazy yuppies, who can’t mow their own lawns or watch their own kids?

It will be fascinating to see who exploits the illegal immigration issue first: the Republicans or the Democrats. Illegal immigration is no longer a taboo topic, and a smart ambitious politician could exploit this opportunity. Let’s just hope it isn’t Hillary.