Illegal Immigration Rally

Interesting to note that authorities are supposedly "surprised" by the size of pro-illegal immigration rallies held in Los Angeles this weekend.

They shouldn't have been. As this article from the LA Times magazine points out, estimates are that there are 2 million illegals in California.

Illegal immigration is an important issue, but one that holds great political peril, especially for Republicans. Everyone knows that Democrats would like nothing better than to vilify Republicans as being anti-immigrant or anti-Latino -- and that there's a split between western Republicans, in particular (whose constituents are feeling the effects of illegal immigratin disproportionately) and pro-business Republicans, who are trying to keep wages low.

But the fact is that no one has called for curbing or restricting legal immigration from Mexico or anywhere else. Rather, the debate at the moment is over how best to enforce current law while meeting what we're told are the labor market's requirements.

It would be most helpful in weighing the debate if someone who's in favor of more immigration or a guest worker program could respond to these concerns raised by Professor Samuelson.