I need some help figuring George Will out: is he selectively ignorant on immigration, or simply not very smart? It's a tough question because of Will's intellectual reputation, but he does seem willfully ignorant on the issue of border security. In his latest piece in National Review, Will blasts Donald Trump for his plan to deport illegals:
Trump, however, has made something novel discussible: He proposes turning America into a police state in order to facilitate ethnic cleansing.
Will calls deporting illegal aliens "ethnic cleansing," presumably because many illegals are Hispanic. Will presumably prefers the current situation, where politicians plot, often joyfully, to change the ethnic makeup of this nation to turn it into a Hispanic one.
When asked whether the forced deportation of 11 million illegal immigrants almost as many people as passed through Ellis Island in 60 years might take five or even ten years, Trump scoffed: Really good management will get this done in at most two years. To meet a two-year deadline, his management wizardry will have to quickly produce a network of informers to assist at least 100,000 new law enforcement officers equipped with battering rams and bloodhounds.
Here Will shows his ignorance. In the Eisenhower administration, 750 agents deported a million illegals in Operation Wetback. At that same ratio, 7,500 could deport ten million. Will conveniently ignores the fact that with the job and welfare spigots turned off, many illegals will leave voluntarily.
Some Republicans think such ideas are not altogether helpful to their partys attempt to present a pleasant face to temperate voters who are fond of civil liberties.
Who are "temperate voters"? Voters from warmer climates? Why doesn't Will just say "Hispanics"? As for civil liberties, what about the civil liberties of Americans who are raped and killed by illegals? What about the billions of taxpayer dollars going to take care of these families? Will's definition of "civil liberties" seems to apply only to illegals.
However, some Republicans also worry that if Trumps inevitable collapse comes too soon, his supporters might move en masse to Ted Cruz before the SEC primary of Southern states on March 1.
Now we get to Will's real agenda: to stop any candidate who believes in securing the borders at all costs. George Will is a Bushie, an establishment, Chamber of Commerce Republican. For George Will, maintaining our borders and enforcing the law involves disrupting our "civil liberties" and the use of "battering rams" and "bloodhounds." I wonder how Will would feel if one of his children were shot and killed on the Embarcadero by an illegal alien. I wonder how Will would feel if his grandchildren attended a school where the majority language spoken was Spanish. I wonder how Will would feel if his column was replaced by Jorge Ramos, since illegals by definition only do jobs "Americans won't do."
Exit question: Can anyone explain why Will is considered a conservative columnist?