Elliot Spitzer is somewhere on the spectrum between stubborn and crazy. Last month, the governor said he would allow undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses, to cut down on the number of uninsured drivers on New York streets. He might as well have declared that henceforce, every baby boy in the state will officially be named Nancy.

Spitzer’s sticking to his proposal, and he’s gotten support from some high-profile figures, who point out that the first priority for security officials is to have information on who’s living in the state. But facts only go so far. In this country, it’s hard to find support for any measure perceived as pro-immigrant, whatever the reason behind it.

Earlier this week, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois held a press conference in support of a bill to give legal status to illegal immigrants who graduate high school, then go to college or serve in the United States military for two years. To make his point, Durbin invited three foreign high school students to the press conference, two from Germany and one from Costa Rica.

Not only did Durbin’s bill fail to get enough support to go to a floor vote; Tom Tancredo, a Republican Senator, called Immigration and Customs Enforcement, asking them to arrest the three students. Tancredo then put out a press release bragging about calling the cops. (The students were in the country legally, the Times reported. Immigration and Customs declined to raid Senator Durbin’s press conference.)

Immigration is fast becoming the new third rail in American politics, displacing terrorism as the topic with the least amount of room for intelligent debate. Remember this summer, when President Bush still had a sliver of political capital, and he tried to use it to get immigration reform through Congress? For most Republicans, a line had been crossed. Continuing a hopeless war in Iraq? Sounds good, the party told Bush. A guest worker program for Mexicans? You must be out of your mind.

Somebody suggested to me a few days ago that the knee-jerk reaction to immigration in America is a proxy for anxiety about the economy. The real concern over immigrants, this argument goes, isn’t protecting national security, or fear of rewarding people who come here illegally; it’s about there being fewer jobs to go around, and preventing the jobs that stick from being taken by people who will do them for less. If politicians would focus on addressing people’s fears about the economy, then, perhaps we could move away from a divisive, unproductive, and ugly debate over who deserves to be here and who doesn’t.

Until that happens, the discussion on immigration is being left to the likes of Lou Dobbs, whose show is to journalism what Penthouse is to gynecology. Dobbs has seized on Spitzer’s proposal with the measured deliberation of a pitbull, and while it may make for great television, it’s a poor substitute for rational conversation. That’s too bad. Whatever the merits of Spitzer’s plan, the debate over immigration in this country deserves better than populist rabble-rousing.

update:

Apparently everybody has their limit.

updated update:

This guy makes my point better than I ever could. Bravo, buzzo.

More in Bright Lights | Email Christopher Flavelle <-->| Blogs Home | Current Issue | SUBSCRIBE »

Posted on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 at 7:36 pm. Follow comments through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comment or trackback.