What it Means to Be Conservative - Part 6: Legal Immigration

Here's the next installment of the series on what it means to be conservative. If you missed the earlier posts, check them out.

Part 1: Limited Government and Free Enterprise
Part 2: Anti-Elitism
Part 3: Wealth Creation
Part 4: Natural Law
Part 5: The Right to Bear Arms

I started the series, in part, to help inform people in advance of the 2012 election. Seeing that the conservatives lost, it is perhaps even more important that we explain to our culture what we believe and why. Apparently, the conservative position is not being heard in our culture, and even many who call themselves conservatives don't know what they believe and why. So here we go with Part 6.

In this video clip, Bill Whittle explains the conservative  view of immigration. It is often said that we are against immigrants, but that is just not true. We are in favor of immigration - as long as it's legal. In fact, most of us would like to make it easier for people to come to our great country legally. But we are against illegal immigration because...well, it's illegal. And because illegal immigrants are putting themselves ahead of all the people who waited in line and went through the proper procedure to come here. That's not fair or right.

Not only do we conservatives want to stop illegal immigration, but we realize that having a border that is not secure, over which people can come and go at will, is not safe for our citizens. Thus, protecting our borders is important to protecting the citizens and their property.

We realize that some people crossing the border are simply wanting to come to the United States to get a better life for themselves and their families. But fleeing lawlessness and oppression only to break the law as their first act in their new country is not the proper way to accomplish their goal. They need to go back and get in line like everyone else.

Of course, many of those crossing the border illegally are not doing it with the intent of becoming Americans, but with the intent of harming us and taking from us. We must control our borders in order to stop these people from bringing harm to our citizens. To ignore the problem is to refuse to do the proper job of government, which is to protect the rights of its citizens.

So that's my two cents. Here's the video so you can hear the full argument for yourselves.

As a side note, I will say that I disgree with one minor point in this video - namely the timeline given of 11,000 years of human history. But that's a topic for another day.

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Here are all the parts of this series on What it Means to Be Conservative:

Part 1: Limited Government and Free Enterprise
Part 2: Anti-Elitism
Part 3: Wealth Creation
Part 4: Natural Law
Part 5: The Right to Bear Arms
Part 6: Legal Immigration
Part 7: American Exeptionalism