Obama: Break Away from Hillary on Immigration

Posted November 6, 2007

To me, the biggest surprise of the 2008 election is that the most wide open election in three generations is not that wide open. The electorate is leaning heavily to early favorites Giuliani and Clinton, the two most centrist candidates. A Democratic Hawk vs. a Republican social liberal? My kind of election.

The biggest disappointment so far has been Barack Obama. Six months ago, the self-described "skinny kid with the funny last name" was a fresh new voice in politics.

Obama came across like Bill Clinton with a zipper and a moral compass. He made common cause with Christian fundamentalists over the environment or Darfur while taking them to task on abortion rights. He brought a compelling biography, a language that seemed perfectly pitched to this election, and a delightful family (a nontrivial asset — just ask Rudy Giuliani). He drew huge crowds and could light up the room — and actually still does.

At worst, Obama can be another Democratic hack (Iraq) or frighteningly naive (Iran) if intelligently conservative in other parts of his foreign policy. But set aside the future of human freedom for just a moment. Set aside his sometimes professorial style. The question is: can this guy play in the bigs? Certainly a lot of donors thought so — Obama has been an astonishingly successful fundraiser.

But can he do what a President has to do all the time and run to the center of his base? I argued that Obama booted his chance for a major Sister Soldja moment in neglecting to denounce Move-On.org for their "General Betray-Us" advertisement kindly subsidized by the New York Times.
These chances do not come often and when they do, a smart politician
grabs them (as Hillary did the following week by opposing the anti-war
wing of the party and voting to declare the Iranian Republican Guard a
terrorist organization).

Immigration, not Iraq, is the sleeping giant of the 2008 campaign. My advice to Obama: ditch the Democratic mainstream and give the following speech:

"Within my first year as President, I will build a 25 foot high wall along our southern border with guards, dogs, TVs, and guns. Where one wall doesn’t work, I will build two walls". Come out and say it – six years after 9/11, the United States does not control our borders. A nation that cannot control its borders not only has no borders — it isn’t a nation. Say it: the US is not part of Mexico, we like Mexico but high fences make good neighbors.
A top priority of your administration will be to make damned sure that nobody enters this country from Mexico without paperwork. Sound a little scary — you will be amazed at the votes you scare up. Point out that Hillary likes to call for strict enforcement without authorizing a dime for it or getting specific about who will be inconvenienced. You intend to badly inconvenience anybody who wants in illegally. Say it.

"In the middle of my 25 foot high wall, I’m gonna open a big wide gate".
This is the easy part — you talk about increasing, not decreasing the number of immigrants. You are the friggin’s statue of liberty with one arm burning in the air. You talk about favoring educated immigrants and
not only increasing H1B visas, but subsidizing the world’s smartest people to relocate here.
Explain that these folks create far more jobs and wealth than they consume and we literally cannot have too many of them. Talk about Bracero programs for farmworkers and how you want states to be able to petition for increases in migrant workers. Talk about a national ID card for everyone that speeds up airport screening and employment verification. It is not a crazy idea and you can make it voluntary, except for green card holders or registered aliens, for whom
it would be mandatory.

"If you are here illegally, you either register or leave". Now you are back to your bad self. Who are you gonna send home? Well not 12 million people, that’s for sure. Carting off the equivalent of the state of Ohio is lunacy, especially when 15% of them are kids. You are going to force people who are here illegally to register. You are not granting an amnesty — you are giving people who cut in line and came over without papers 90 days to register. They are going to get a registration card with an RFI tag. When registration closes, anyone found without a registration card goes home. Say it — and mean it.

People who register get scored. You do not reveal the scoring system — you aren’t obliged to. But we give points to people who have been here longer or people who bought a house. We favor those who have learned English, who have acquired skills, who have paid taxes, or are related to US citizens, including children. But if you have been in jail, collecting unemployment, or dealing drugs, pack your bags. Your message: the best can work towards citizenship but we are shutting the door and sending the worst home for good. Say it.

Americans who exploit immigrants are no better than immigrants who exploit America.
There is plenty of room in this for employer sanctions. Not sanctions against employers who hired the occasional undocumented immigrant along with the documented ones — we are not law enforcement officials. But there are always employers, especially growers, who use immigration laws and the fear of deportation to exploit migrant workers. That’s evil. Say it.

Remind voters that in the old days, Mexican laborers were sent home ("drying out the wetbacks") and had to sign new work contracts — often with the same employers who had just turned them in — if they wanted to return to El Norte and work. Remind people that this, roughly, is Bush’s plan — (and as a former Texas governor, Bush knows something about immigration, unlike some Republicans).

Promise that we will never return to 1948, when a plane carrying Mexican deportees from Oakland to El Centro crashed in the Central Valley near Los Gatos Creek, killing all 28 aboard. We recall the event today only because it moved Woodie Guthrie to pen his last song:

Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted,
Our work contract’s out and we have to move on;
Six hundred miles to that Mexican border,
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?
To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil
And be called by no name except "deportees"?

Your platform is simple: High walls. Big gates. Tough love for rulebreakers, whether they are people without documents or employers without scruples.

You point out repeatedly that you are talking about the tough issues, the divisive issues, the issues
that a President has to deal with. You are not sticking to the easy
center trying to please everybody like some candidates do.

You point out that George Bush couldn’t control the Texan
Border and his brother in Florida can’t keep out the Cubans. You,
America’s first modern President born to an immigrant father, are going to restore
order and integrity to an immigration system that is dangerously
broken.

(Reality check: once you are elected, build that wall. For real. Blow open the H1B program — it will pay back in your first term.
And register the illegals, even though the ACLU will scream.
Ship a few crooks and bums home — and nail anybody who fails to
register. Make a big deal about it.

But face it, anybody who registers and makes
a life here accumulates enough points to eventually become a citizen.
We need them, we should welcome them, and there is not the slightest
chance that you
are sending them home. But that can be our little secret).

Obama, you don’t have many more chances left to clearly distinguish yourself from Hillary Clinton, to sound a clear and moderate voice for change, to be both tough and balanced on a major issue, and to demonstrate that you can tell some people what they don’t want to hear. You are the son of an immigrant and this can be a very good issue for you. Seize it.