More Problems With Senate Immigration Deal

Earlier, I wrote about how the Senate immigration deal supported by Ted Kennedy and George Bush has been criticized for doing little to increase the supply of high-skilled immigrant labor, even as it opens the door to 12 million mostly low-skilled illegal immigrants ultimately becoming citizens (and thus receiving retirement and welfare benefits at taxpayer expense).

Today, The Wall Street Journal has an editorial on how “the Senate bill is worse than current law for skilled immigrants,” who are badly needed in a number of American industries.

In a recent column, George Will explained how the bill will benefit illegal aliens, who are often unskilled, at the expense of American taxpayers.

In an ideal world, America would have a liberal immigration policy, but those who come to America would have to agree to forego welfare benefits, and means-tested benefits, for life, and receive no more Social Security benefits than they pay in.

But such restrictions on welfare would be anathema to the liberal advocacy groups that are pushing hardest for passage of the Senate immigration deal. They may be described as supporting open borders, but what they really want is an open-wallet policy. They want American taxpayers to pay for welfare, affirmative action, and bilingual education for illegal immigrants from the Third World. They have little interest in the well-being of people like my wife, a trilingual, French and Spanish-speaking, legal immigrant.