Marathon Pundit: NRO's McCarthy, Michael Reagan, back Newt's immigration position

Ohio, IL

Remember, Mrs. Marathon Pundit is an immigrant and while I don't know anyone who fits the category Newt Gingrich described in last night's CNN debate: "I don't see how the party that says it's the party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families that have been here a quarter century," a few come close, time-wise. Yes, the people I am referring to are in this country illegally.

Predictably, the former House Speaker is receiving some blowback, but a couple of prominent conservatives are behind Newt.

First, Andrew McCarthy explains his support in National Review Online:

All he said was, "Let's be humane in enforcing the law." That was my reaction last night when Newt Gingrich argued that the federal government should refrain from deporting illegal immigrants who had been in the U.S. for many years if the effect would be the break up of a family.

I did not take him to be proposing a new law conferring amnesty. To do what the former Speaker proposed would require no change in U.S. law. All you'd need is the sensible application of prosecutorial discretion.

A successful immigration enforcement policy, easily implemented under current law, would secure the borders; use the capability we have to track aliens who enter on visas to ensure that they don't overstay; and target our finite law enforcement resources at (a) illegal immigrants who violate federal or state criminal laws (i.e., other than the laws against illegal entry), and (b) employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens and therefore provide the incentive that induces them to come. (An even better policy would deny illegal immigrants various social welfare benefits, but some of that would involve changes in the law so I put it to the side for present purposes.)

Such a policy would materially reduce the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. — if they can't work, many will leave and many won't come in the first place. Such a policy would also call on government lawyers to exercise discretion (as they do in all aspects of law-enforcement) to decide which cases are worth prosecuting. Obviously, if an alien has been here illegally for a number of years but has been essentially law-abiding (again, ignoring the fact that it is illegal for him to reside and work in the U.S.), and if his deportation would have the effect of ripping apart an intact, law-abding family, you don't bring that case. Such a case is not worth the Justice Department's time when there are plenty of more serious criminals, including more serious immigration offenders, to pursue.

Michael Reagan believes his father would support Gingrich, as he explained earlier this afternoon on Fox News.

"He would've supported probably the Newt Gingrich position on immigration," Michael Reagan said. "My father never would have broken up a family to try and make, in fact, a point on immigration. And so he would have applauded Newt Gingrich on that."

Related post:

Marathon Pundit's Ronald Reagan Trail

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