No downside

It’s OK. Really. Trust me.
I was listening to NPR last night because they had a program originating from Elgin about immigration. Let me just say that the anti-Fox didn’t disappoint. True to their colors, they portrayed the immigration crisis as one of Hispanic victims.

It was quite a show. At one point the moderator wanted to talk about the contributions of immigrants to society. Professor Guadalupe Luna, a former immigration lawyer, protested by telling the host that she wanted to talk about the exploitation and injustice when employers fail to pay a living wage to undocumented workers. No one pointed out to Guadalupe that many of these employers are Hispanics themselves, sort of a brown-on-brown crime.

I listened carefully to the hour-long program hoping someone would talk about the downside of the invasion, but it never came. Not one word about crowded schools, long waits in emergency rooms, people driving around without insurance, or identity theft.

In addition to Luna, there was Elgin Mayor Ed Schock, celebrating the diversity and proclaiming that we couldn’t have grown without the immigrants in the past 30 years. He didn’t specify legal or illegal. Come to think of it, rarely did any of the panelists make any distinction between the immigrant and the illegal alien.

The lone exception was Alderman Tenpas from Waukegan. He made it clear that he wants the illegal alien criminals GONE from his town. He said they weren’t going to do immigration sweeps but that violent criminals without papers would be subject to deportation and he was just fine with that. Good for you, Mr. Tenpas!

Rounding out the panel was Dr. Chiswick, a labor professor who assured us that we have been absorbing immigrants for 300 years and he expects that we’ll be able to handle this bunch as well. I suppose he’d have a debate on his hands if he were in a room with colleagues like Samuel Huntington, Vernon Briggs, and George Borjas.

The audience questions seemed to be almost scripted. I can think of only two questions that would portray the immigration issue as a problem. The rest wanted to explore the plight of the immigrant as a victim.

More to come on this as I obtain a transcript of the evening and dissect the comments.

Like I said at the start, I expected this program to be liberal hype and I was not disappointed. Tenpas was the only bright spot.