Immigration

California’s immigration story is a bittersweet, heart-palpitating tale incapable of arriving upon any hard-line conclusions. An example of this is that on the one hand, immigrants from India and China are upholding Silicon Valley as our American children refuse to embrace the math and sciences — in essence, they are keeping America competitive. While on the other hand, illegal immigrants weigh an enormous economic burden on states services such as: hospital care, education and prison systems.

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I met the international jazz great Pacquito di Rivera at a concert in Washington last year. I asked him if he lived in Miami, where I do half the year (Key Biscayne, minutes outside Miami). No, he said, he lives in North Bergen, N.J. I was stunned: The famous Cuban refugee lives walking distance from where I grew up in the 1930s and ’40s.

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President Obama's national healthcare bill mandates that employers must provide health coverage to all employees. This proposal would seemingly include coverage for tens of millions of illegal immigrants.

This is an outrage. There are close to 60 million illegal immigrants in this country. Effectively forcing Americans to subsidize cradle-to-grave healthcare costs for these people would cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars annually, while further incentivizing illegal immigration.

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Chapel Hill, N.C., is a wonderful place. Situated on a gorgeous campus and one of the finest schools in the land, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is also home to the 2009 NCAA Men's Basketball champions.

It's paradise. You live in one of the best and prettiest college towns in America, your professors challenge you, your sports teams win (and not just men's hoops; the women's soccer program is the nation's best, for example), you count Michael Jordan and Andy Griffith as fellow Tar Heels, the live music scene thrives, your graduation is held in a football stadium and, if you're a North Carolina resident, your in-state tuition is low (which has saved many a North Carolinian from having to say, "Yes, I went to Duke."). Read more...

The twin specters of terrorism and tough economic times have brought the immigration debate to the forefront of American politics in a big way. The average citizen sees the flood of immigrants entering the country as a symbol of the lack of border security in the midst of a particularly dangerous time for America. In addition, the growth in illegal immigration is seen as diluting the value of citizenship, cheapening the labor pool and leading to a lower standard of living for actual citizens.

Some of the rhetoric surrounding the debate has unfortunately resorted to ethnic bigotry, but the fundamentals come down to jobs and security. Thus, the reaction to the current wave of immigration has been similar to those of prior waves of migration: The new lumps in our stew froth and steam, and sometime bubble over, in the melting process that is American society. Read more...

Scripture says that the meek shall inherit the Earth.

Guess what? It is already happening.

Among richer, more secular countries, the birthrate is not at the rate of replacement. Maintaining a steady population requires a birthrate of 2.1 In Western Europe; the birthrate currently stands at 1.5, or 30 percent below replacement.

In 30 years there will be 70 to 80 million fewer Europeans than there are today. The current birthrate in Germany is 1.3. Italy and Spain are even lower, at 1.2. At that rate, the working-age population declines by 30 percent in 20 years, which has a huge impact on the economy. Read more...

In the days after yet another major defeat for Republicans, there will be a lot of soul-searching within the party's leadership and I, for one, am content in knowing that they will probably take away all the wrong lessons from this momentous occasion. I'm just pleased-as-punch to see social conservatives looking for every chance to get in front of the television cameras to gloat about how their party dropped the ball by ignoring traditional values. I can barely suppress a grin when they trot out the line that we're still a "center-right" country. Read more...

Is justice an anomaly in the illegal immigration debate?

If you live in a sanctuary city it certainly is. In regard to the police, a sanctuary city is premised on a “don’t ask, don’t tell” philosophy.

How does this play out in practice? If an illegal immigrant is arrested, no one will know because immigration status will never come up in the conversation, resulting in the release of dangerous illegal immigrants on the American public. The Shaw family of Los Angeles knows this scenario all too well. Read more...

Ten states in our great country allow illegal aliens not only to attend college in their state, but to do so at in-state tuition rates. This means that aliens can break all sorts of federal laws, come into our country illegally, and then go to these states and pay cheaper tuition than citizen students from out of state. Are you kidding me?

This college tuition issue came to light recently when about three dozen students in California filed a lawsuit against the University of California, charging that it had violated federal law by allowing illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at its campuses while maintaining higher rates for out-of-state students. Read more...

During this stage of the presidential race, you don't hear Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) or Barack Obama (D-Ill.) giving much attention to the illegal immigration crisis that continues to plague our nation.

There is no more important domestic issue facing America than illegal immigration, and yet we continue to avoid resolving the problem. The dilemma is that millions of people are streaming across American borders in the hope of improving their lot in life, but only a few of them are going through the proper channels to become legal citizens or documented aliens. Thus, our country is full of people who for all intents and purposes do not exist — they don’t have voting rights, they don’t have proper identification, they don’t serve on juries, and they don’t pay taxes. Read more...