Here’s a pop quiz: What’s the hottest issue on the minds of Republican voters these days? Abortion? Social Security? War? The Supreme Court? No, according to a poll this summer, it’s illegal immigration. One Republican congressman calls immigration the “highest octane issue in America.”
Some 11 million undocumented foreigners are now inside the US, and with maybe 400,000 more coming every year. There are plenty of laws on the books against it, but millions of willing workers and an army of willing employers ignore those laws every minute of every day in every state.
The Republican majority in Washington is fiercely divided over what to do, from pro-business “guest worker” advocates to minuteman-style critics who want walls and round-ups. It’s a rift the White House is trying to straddle but so far, it isn’t working.
Guests:
Stephen Dinan, Congressional Bureau Chief, Washington Times
Tamar Jacoby, Senior Fellow, The Manhattan Institute
Mark Krikorian, Executive Director, Center for Immigration Studies
John N. Hostettler, (R-Indiana) Vice Chairman, House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims;
Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico;
David Gutierrez, Professor of History at the University of California at San Diego & author of “Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity”.
