THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S IMMIGRATION RECORD. Interesting graph from The Wall Street Journal tracking immigration enforcement over the last few years:
As you can see, enforcement drops through the first few years of the Bush presidency. That is, in part, probably a function of the tax cuts. When you defund government, government has less money to do things like employ border enforcement offers and conduct workplace raids. Also interesting is the 2006 jump, as the Administration decides the base needs to be stroked and so they exponentially accelerate arrests. Quite the sound immigration policy they've got there. It's worth wondering what would've happened if, post-2004, Bush had used his "mandate" to push comprehensive immigration reform rather than Social Security privatization. The electoral landscape could, today, look a whole hell of a lot different.While I'm on the subject, the Drum Major Institute is releasing the second version of their As you can see, enforcement drops through the first few years of the Bush presidency. That is, in part, probably a function of the tax cuts. When you defund government, government has less money to do things like employ border enforcement offers and conduct workplace raids. Also interesting is the 2006 jump, as the Administration decides the base needs to be stroked and so they exponentially accelerate arrests. Quite the sound immigration policy they've got there. It's worth wondering what would've happened if, post-2004, Bush had used his "mandate" to push comprehensive immigration reform rather than Social Security privatization. The electoral landscape could, today, look a whole hell of a lot different. While I'm on the subject, the Drum Major Institute is releasing the second version of their Immigrant Principles report, which offers the clearest and most sophisticated progressive take I've seen on the issue. --Ezra Klein
