Ruben Navarrette’s Latest on Immigration

Ruben Navarette opines on the immigration debate in a way that is sure to rile some of our readers.  Here is the start of his latest column on CNN.com:

“You must know what’s really driving the immigration debate. It’s the culture, stupid.

Immigration restrictionists — and by that, I mean those who want to limit all immigration, even the legal kind — like to pretend they’re so high-minded. Yet they can’t help themselves. They always take the low road and harken back to the nativism that greeted earlier waves of immigrants.

The restrictionists insist that what bothers them are merely practical concerns: that our borders aren’t secure, that so many immigrants are coming into the country illegally, and that the new arrivals are burdening schools and draining social services once they get here. Really? If that’s the extent of it, then why does the conversation quickly turn to the impact — both real and perceived — that immigrants have on American culture through everything from taco trucks to Spanish-language billboards.” (emhasis added).

Comments?

Keep in mind that Navarette often gets criticized from both the pro- and anti-immigrant folks.  So be careful before you smear him as an “open borders” advocate — which he most definitely is not.  And we will be watching if you try to question his credibility beccause he is Latino.  Not all Latinos think alike on immigration.  See David G. Gutíerrez, Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity (1995).

KJ