La ley es la ley

In case you missed it, this is from a presidential interview last week in the Oval Office with reporters from 12 regional newspapers in the country, including the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:

President Trump called for in­creas­ing the num­ber of le­gal im­mi­grants al­lowed into the United States. He made a sim­i­lar ap­peal dur­ing last week's State of the Union ad­dress.

"We need peo­ple in our coun­try be­cause our unem­ploy­ment num­bers are so low, and we have mas­sive num­bers of companies com­ing back into our coun­try--car com­pa­nies, we have seven car com­pa­nies com­ing back in right now and there's go­ing to be a lot more--we've done re­ally well with this, and we need peo­ple."

Im­mi­grants can help to keep the econ­omy strong, he said.

"I need peo­ple com­ing in be­cause we need peo­ple to run the fac­to­ries and plants and com­pa­nies that are mov­ing back in. We need peo­ple."

Critics claim President Trump is opposed to immigration. But it seems clear from these words that Trump is in favor of immigration. He is just in favor of legal immigration, not illegal immigration.

Some Americans might think: What's the difference? Immigrants are all human. If there's little difference, if illegal immigrants are treated the same as legal ones, why should we even have an immigration system at all? Or laws? It seems unfair to legal immigrants--who wait their turn and go through the system--if illegal immigrants get the same treatment. In fact, that sounds a lot like the argument for those who favor a completely open border to the United States.

To President Trump, immigration is a national policy issue, and any policy should be decided on what's in the best interest of the United States, not the desire of each individual wanting to come here.

Yes, we are a nation of immigrants. But most of those immigrants, and their offspring, came here legally. We are a nation of laws, not just emotions. If it comes down to an argument between legal immigration and open borders in 2020, we think most rational, level-headed Americans will go with legal immigration, and lots more of it.

Editorial on 02/13/2019