Immigration restrictionists have tried to justify their support of draconian anti-immigrant laws like Arizona’s SB 1070 on the grounds that illegal immigrants cause crime and the fact that the federal government is not acting on immigration. In fact immigrants are less likely than the native born to commit crimes, and the federal government is deporting people in record numbers.
However, if restrictionism was simply about crime, you’d assume that measures designed to provide a path to citizenship for students who were brought to the U.S. by their parents would have some support from Republicans. After all, these aren’t criminals, they’re the exact type of immigrants Republicans say they want.
