Torch, Spring/Summer 2012

I continue to be amazed at both the tone and volume of illegal immigration debate in this country — the heated rhetoric, the overreaching policy prescriptions, presidential candidates promising to seal every inch of the border, and now Alabama wants to turn school teachers into immigration agents. The solutions seem to have no correlation to the actual size of the problem, which is shrinking, by the way. It has been for more than a decade. The New York Times reported that fewer than 100,000 illegal immigrants from Mexico settled in the U.S. last year. That may seem like a lot, but that’s down from 525,000 in 2004 and 850,000 in 2000. Deportations are at a record high, and border apprehensions have fallen by 70 percent. Why are we still talking about this? Some of it has to do with our perceptions of how immigrants impact our economy, our culture, and our politics. Making the Case In 2008, I wrote a book called Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders . It is not a case for The Case for Free Market Immigration by Jason L. Riley The U.S. cities with the largest concentrations of immigrant workers have seen the largest economic gains. Spring-Summer 2012 | TORCH 23 SCOTT HUCK | CEDARVILLE UNIVERSITY