The Lazuras Syndrome —

Veritas definition — Repeating mindlessly the inscription on  the Statue of Liberty as if it were an open borders statement and a claim to taxpayer largess. Gary Bauer of Campaign for Working Families had this to say today:

The Limits Of Compassion

Sadly, a lot of folks on the left and many well-meaning individuals in the faith-based community are quoting poet Emma Lazarus, who wrote the inscription on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”

It is worth reflecting on a little history here. When that statue was erected in 1886 and for many decades afterwards, there was no welfare system in the United States. We were a rapidly growing nation that desperately needed labor. It was in the national interest to welcome anyone who wanted to work hard at little-to-no expense to the taxpayer.

And it was hard work. The American labor movement was in its infancy. There were no federal child labor laws, for example. That wave of immigration helped to grow the country. But as conservative/libertarian icon Milton Friedman said, “It’s just obvious you can’t have free immigration and a welfare state.” And America today is a welfare state.

Most individuals coming across the border right now will be a financial burden on American citizens of all races, some of whom live in neighborhoods plagued by crime and poverty.

We would never want to go back to the 1880s when everyone, including children, was expected to work. And we shouldn’t cite an immigration philosophy of 1880 as a motto today when the people coming are likely to add to the burdens of current American workers whose wages are already depressed.

The moral calculation is not so simple as some would have you believe. If a person fleeing persecution from Africa or Asia turns up on our border, the moral thing to do is to welcome him in. But even compassion has to have rational limits.

More than 38,000 unaccompanied children were detained at the southern border in fiscal year 2013. According to the Washington Post, a leaked Border Patrol memo “estimated that more than 90,000 youths would be apprehended at the border this year and 142,000 next year.” 

Those figures do not include adult illegal immigrants. Nor do they include the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants already here.

Surely no rational person would say, “I don’t care what the number is, we have an obligation to let them all come in.” As Friedman suggests, doing so could bankrupt the country.

The debate should be about what a compassionate nation can reasonably do in a world where millions of people live on less than a dollar a day. That means we must be able to regulate the number of people who enter our country. And we can’t rationally and compassionately regulate the number unless we secure our borders.

The faith community should insist that, before anything else, the United States should regain control of our borders. Then, and only then, can we have a legitimate debate about who should be allowed in.

To my friends in the faith community, of which I am part, I would make this observation: This uncontrolled wave of illegal immigration is fomenting an understandable backlash that will intensify unless the American people are assured that their government is fulfilling its number one priority — protecting the boundaries and sovereignty of our country.

By the way, as I write, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is meeting with Obama at the White House, and Nancy Pelosi has just announced her opposition to speeding up deportations.

Meanwhile a new Gallup poll finds that “immigration/illegal aliens” tops the list of issues facing the country, followed closely by “dissatisfaction with government.” The November elections could be historic if millions of previously inactive voters head to the polls!

See our related Veritas commentary from earlier today.

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