Editorial: US migration mess

Editorial: US migration mess
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010
Published: August 24 2010 20:47 | Last updated: August 24 2010 20:47
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/50ea07de-afad-11df-b45b-00144feabdc0.html


Quite where US immigration policy will stand after November’s midterm elections is anybody’s guess. Like no other subject, this issue sets US politicians against voters. Candidates must say one thing to get elected, and can be expected (so one hopes) to say another once that is achieved. This is especially true of Republicans, whose supporters are inflamed on the issue. Sadly, the most one can ask is that politicians avoid committing themselves irretrievably to bad policies, and retain the option of becoming more intelligent later.

John McCain is a dispiriting case study. Faced with a tough nomination battle over his Senate seat for Arizona – the state whose attempt to go it alone with a toughened immigration law has made it the centre of the immigration battle – he adjusted his earlier admirable position. Previously he championed comprehensive reform, and a path to eventual citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants already in the country. In his fight for the nomination, he has concentrated on demanding stronger border security. It has seemed to work: he went into Tuesday’s primary ahead in the polls.

California’s Meg Whitman, the Republican nominee for governor, has already semi-pivoted the other way. Campaigning for the nomination she promised to be tough as nails on illegal immigration. Now in the contest proper, she is reaching out to Latinos and has let it be known (often in Spanish) that she opposes Arizona’s law. Carly Fiorina, pitted against Democrat Barbara Boxer for one of California’s Senate seats, is also delicately poised: “We have to embrace immigration,” she has said. “It is the lifeblood of our country. But we have to secure the borders.”

Efforts are under way to pass an Arizona-style law in Florida and some other states. Polls say most voters approve. The issue is less intensely debated in much of the US, but the underlying tension is there. The Arizona law, successfully challenged (for now) in the courts by the federal government, commands wide support. Washington has conceded extra resources for border security. Voters want an effective border and existing laws properly enforced; politicians, too craven to say it, know that sealing the border is impossible and that the existing laws are unenforceable in a liberal society.

This hopeless system needs a complete overhaul. It cannot happen before November. If it is to happen soon after, candidates will have to temper their rhetoric and stop using the issue as a political wedge.