Michelle Malkin is taking on the father of American conservatism William F. Buckley, Jr., specifically this column where he argues against the mass deportation of 11 million immigrants.
Here’s the quote that has Michelle in an uproar:
Uprooting them [the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally] would prove as wrenching as the uprooting of the blacks from Africa 300 years ago.
To which Michelle responds:
Yeah, except for the small fact that the Africans were cruelly snatched from their lawful homes in their native land, forced to march in shackles, auctioned off, and crammed into slave ships…and illegal aliens would be deported from their unlawful homes in the land whose laws they ignored, and politely returned to their native country in tax-subsidized buses and planes.
Umm, Michelle, what about the children that you and I both know these illegals have given birth to here in the United States ? Under the 14th Amendment, those children are citizens. No Court in the land is going to allow citizens, especially minors, to be deported. Do you suggest separating parents and children ? And if these people don’t want to go, exactly how are you going to make them leave ?
Buckley is right and Malkin is wrong. Forcible deportation of 11 million illegal immigrants will never work. First, it would be a logistical nightmare to even find these people to begin with. Being here illegally, they are pretty good at hiding from the authorities when necessary. Second, no matter how we try to paint it, the rest of the world is going to be against us. Mexico isn’t going to want these people, just how do the advocates of forced deportation contend we force Mexico, or Honduras, or anyone, to take these people ?
The only way I can see it working, ultimately, is at gunpoint. And, then, it will start looking like a modern-day version of the mass movement of blacks from Africa during the slave trade. Or the forced mass migration of non-Germans from “German lands” before and during World War II. Or the forced mass migrations that occurred under Soviet and Communist Chinese rule.
Personally, I don’t think we’ll see answers to any of those questions from the people who think you can just round these people up and send them home. Especially not when you see rhetoric like this:
Buckley’s idiocy is another reason, as Heather Mac Donald argues, that East Coast Elites Should Shut Up About Immigration.
As The Florida Masochist says, Buckley doesn’t need to shut up:
WFB is welcome to his opinion, you’re welcome to yours as I am welcome to mine. We have freedom of speech, not everyone should be a moonbat or knucklehead for disagreeing with either of us. Its a free country after all.
Personally, I’ve found that when people tell their political opponents to shut up, its usually because they can’t come up with a good response to an argument that’s being made.
July 6th, 2006 at 3:40 pm
The children are still under the responsibility of those parents. I think that it can be justified that the children are deported with their parents because their parents had the children illegally in this country. However, upon their 18th birthday, those children would have the legal right to return to this country if they wished.
But I agree that a mass deportation would be very hard to pull (who cares if the rest of the world likes it, they don’t seem to like us anyway). It would be costly, time consuming, and potentially could take away resources that are currently being used to prevent illegals from entering this country in the first place.
And I might point out that just because we have the freedom of speech, doesn’t mean that it is always prudent to use it.
July 6th, 2006 at 4:26 pm
The children may be the responsibility of the parents, but as full American citizens under the 14th Amendment they have all of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. They, quite simply, cannot be deported without a hearing and, since they are citizens and here legally, any hearing would result in a victory for the child.
I agree that one should be prudent exercising freedom of speech, and I think that Malkin should have exercised some prudence before telling someone as intelligent as Bill Buckley to shut up just because she disagrees with him.
July 6th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
Wow. It never ceases to amaze me that so many people who loudly talk about being “pro-family” wouldn’t give a second thought to ripping apart these particular families. I guess all it takes is the ability to dehumanize people. It’s been done before, after all.
Even more astounding is the talk of the children themselves as “anchor babies,” as if their parents don’t really love them and only had them to use as some sort of political leverage tool. It’s the same vicious smear that gets leveled at gay and lesbian parents, as a matter of fact.
This is not a simple problem. It didn’t develop overnight and isn’t going to be solved by a simple-minded wish that people would just disappear. Thank you for being a sensible voice.