Posted on: Tuesday, July 31, 2001

Editorial
Immigration flap is political foolishness

For most people, Pat Buchanan and his Reform Party colleagues are largely irrelevant and not worth much attention. But simply dismissing Buchanan and the conservative agenda he champions could turn out to be a dangerous mistake.

Buchanan's political genius, if you will, is his ability to capitalize on the resentments of others. At the party's national convention over the weekend in Tennessee, the resentment of the moment was over immigrants — particularly illegal immigrants.

The Reform Party delegates approved a resolution calling for a 10-year ban on immigration into the United States.

The proposal is, of course, patently absurd. The core of this nation's economic and cultural vitality lies with immigration, the constant inflow of new ideas, new cultures and new muscle. In California, for instance, immigrants form the backbone of that state's blue-collar economy and are key players in the high-end, high-tech economy.

Hawai'i's experience, of course, is fundamentally about immigration.

Immigration does present legitimate issues, of course. Are the rules fair? Are we playing a cynical game by using unregistered or illegal immigrants to do the tough and dirty work we are unwilling to do ourselves? Are our systems of social support being overloaded by waves of immigrants from elsewhere?

These are fair questions for debate. But the answers won't be found by slamming our doors and pretending the rest of the world doesn't exist.