EDITORnThomas FlemingnMANAGING EDITORnKatherine DaltonnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSnChilton Williamson, Jr.nASSISTANT EDITORnTheodore PappasnART DIRECTORnAnna Mycek-‘WodeckinCONTRIBUTING EDITORSn]ohn W. Aldridge, Harold O.J.nBrown, Samuel Francis, GeorgenGarrett, Russell Kirk, E. ChristiannKopff, Clyde WilsonnCORRESPONDING EDITORSnJanet Scott Barlow, Odie Faulk,nJane Greer, John Shelton Reed,nGary VasilashnEDITORIAL SECRETARYnLeann DobbsnPUBLISHERnAllan C. CarlsonnASSOCIATE PUBLISHERnMichael WardernPUBLICATION DIRECTORnGuy C. ReffettnCOMPOSITION MANAGERnAnita FedoranCIRCULATION MANAGERnRochelle FranknA publication of The Rockford Institute.nEditorial and Advertising Offices: 934 NorthnMain Street, Rockford, IL 61103.nEditorial Phone: (815) 964-5054.nAdvertising Phone: (815) 964-5811.nSubscription Department: P.O. Box 800, MountnMorris, IL 61054. Call 1-800-435-0715, innIllinois 1-800-892-0753.nFor information on advertising in Chronicles,nplease call Cathy Corson at (815) 964-5811.nU.S.A. Newsstand Distribution by EasternnNews Distributors, Inc., 1130 Cleveland Road,nSandusky, OH 44870.nCopyright © 1991 by The Rockford Institute.nAll rights reserved.nChronicles (ISSN 0887-5731) is publishednmonthly for $24 per year by The RockfordnInstitute, 934 North Main Street, Rockford, IEn61103-7061.nSecond-class postage paid at Rockford, IL andnadditional mailing offices.nPOSTMASTER: Send address changes tonChronicles, P.O. Box 800, Mount Morris, ILn61054.nThe views expressed in Chronicles are thenauthors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect thenviews of The Rockford Institute or of itsndirectors. Unsolicited manuscripts cannot benreturned unless accompanied by a self-addressednstamped envelope.nChroniclesnA MAGAZINE OF AMEtUlkN CULTUREn4/CHRONICLESnVol. 15, No. 5 May 1991nPOLEMICS & EXCHANGESnOn ‘Illegal Immigration’nThank you for Theodore Pappas’s articlen(Cultural Revolutions) on illegalnimmigration in the January 1991 issue.nSo little is written about the topic thatnwe are grateful when anyone recognizesnthe problems.nA little clarification. There are twonkinds of deportation. Most frequent isnwhat agents refer to as “VRs.” Thisntranslates into “voluntary returns,”nmeaning those who are picked up almostnas soon as they cross the bordernand who return south without goingnthrough the lengthy and expensivenprocess of formal deportation. In thenSan Diego sector alone, there weren473,373 arrested, most being VRs, innfiscal 1990. Were all those people to benput through the entire process, roughlyn1,300 illegal aliens would be jailed everynday.nThen there are the illegals arrestednwho have committed crimes other thannbreaking the federal law to enter. Drugndealers, burglars, rapists, killers—thenwhole gamut of penal code violations.nThese are the ones who should be heldnin custody, but the regulations for handlingnthem are so complex — they havenbeen deemed eligible for all the protectionsnthat citizens have — that they arenusually released pending trial. Needlessnto say, most of them disappear.nAs an organization, we are having anfeud with Jack Kemp and his policy ofnallowing illegal aliens any benefits thatncitizens are eligible for. We wrote andnasked him why he was allowing illegalsnto benefit from subsidized housing andnother entitlements, and received ancanned, non-pertinent answer, so wrotenagain. This time we received the followingnfrom his office:n”Secretary Kemp has expressed particularnconcern about the injustices thatnwould inevitably result from governmentalnaction designed to withholdnfunds from illegal aliens facing a criticalnneed for community developmentnblock grant (CDBG) assistance. In thisnregard, it is his view that basic considerationsnof justice and decency, and specialnsensitivity to the need to protect thenleast among us from misfortune not ofnnntheir choosing, justifies the Department’snposition.”nYou have a good grasp of what ournsmaller communities are going throughnwith not only illegal aliens, but thenamnestied. We find that a huge percentagenof the amnestied probably usednfraud to get their papers, and they toonlive in the open and hang around streetncorners looking for work, driving everyonenbananas.n— Barbara McCarthynStamp Out Crime CouncilnSan Diego, CAnThat was some ball of yarn on WestnCoast immigration woes in your Januarynissue. Let me pull at a few threads.nFirst you castigate the liberalizationnCongress enacted last fall, although itnwas basically designed to let in morenpeople of a kindred cultural cast. Doesnits other provisions cloud the issue fornyou, or do you object broadly to thenforeign-born? You worry about thenmedical costs of unbridled immigrationnin a social-welfare state. Rightly so. Butnwhy don’t you address the welfare statenitself instead of chasing off those who,nlike many of us, would exploit it? And, ifnit’s sponging off America that so characterizesnthe immigrants, why is it, innCosta Mesa, California, and other citiesnyou cite, that the most visible andntargeted manifestations of the influx arenthe day laborers who congregate onnresidential sidewalks waiting for pickup?nThen, you raise the specter of latterdaynOkies fleeing to the great Anglonnorthland. It is true that California innrecent years has shown a net exodus tonboth Oregon and Nevada, where Latinosnare fewer and living costs less. It isnnot true for Washington State or Idahonor Montana or even Utah, however, sonyour reference to the Pacific Northwestnis overdrawn.nAside from these details, somethingnlarger needs to be said about the schismnbetween libertarians and traditionalistsnon this issue. Mass immigration bringsnconsiderable difficulties, and objectionnto it is not ipso facto nativism or racism,nand it cheapens the debate to suggestn