I used to know a man who had the annoying habit of saying that people who differed from him might claim X, “but the reality is…”.

This was annoying because he had no better hold on reality than anyone else. And frequently what he called “the reality” is what the rest of us call “the conventional wisdom.”

I was reminded of that when I saw a story headed Immigration: Rhetoric vs. reality, [by Chris Kromm [Email him], The Institute for Southern Studies, January 10, 2011]

The Institute for Southern Studies, founded “in 1970 by veterans of the civil rights movement,” describes itself as promoting “A New Vision for a Changing South,” which means that it’s sort of an anti-VDARE.com. (A lot better funded—please send us money.)

Recently, it’s promoting a vision of a new, this time more Mexican, South by attacking Republicans for caring about immigration.

The reason it’s wrong to care about immigration? Because “the reality is” that immigration has all stopped! There aren’t any immigrants!

Kromm writes:

Just as immigration is growing as a hot political topic in the South and country, the number of immigrants is in steep decline.

A new study from Princeton's Mexican Migration Project finds that, for the first time in 60 years, net migration has fallen to zero—and is probably "a little bit negative." That's in line with analysis by groups like the Pew Hispanic Center, which have found that births in U.S.-based families has overtaken immigration as the chief driver in Latino community growth.

Based on this “studies have shown” nonsense (mostly what “studies have shown” is that reporters will believe anything), Kromm goes on to say that

the reality that immigration has slowed to a trickle, hasn't stopped politicians from turning it into a hot election-year issue. As GOP presidential hopefuls prepare for the January 21 primary in South Carolina—a state convulsed by demographic changes—they've ratcheted up the anti-immigrant rhetoric, as James Rosen of McClatchy-Tribune reports…

Rosen [Email him] works for McClatchy-Tribune News Service. His widely-reproduced story was headed Illegal immigration remains key issue for GOP presidential hopefuls, (January 7, 2012,). He also believes that immigration is down, and that it’s wrong for Republicans to be focusing on it:

When it comes to illegal immigration, Republican presidential candidates are railing like it's 1999.

Listening to the GOP White House aspirants, you wouldn't know that the number of illegal immigrants in the United States is down, attempted border crossings are at a 40-year low and President Barack Obama has deported undocumented workers at almost twice the rate as his predecessor.

With slight variations, the top candidates back mass deportations, tough state enforcement laws and extending the 675-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, and they oppose giving most illegal immigrants a path to legal residency.

"Border crossings are at a historic low, deportations are at a historic high, yet every Republican presidential candidate says the first thing we have to do is secure the border," said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a Washington group that wants immigration enforcement to focus on serious criminals and national security threats.

The reality, if I may put it like that, is that America’s Voice is an arm of the Treason Lobby. It really doesn’t want anyone deported.

While Tamar Jacoby’s ImmigrationWorksUSA is funded directly by business, which wants immigration enforcement to not deport the cheap labor, Frank Sharry’s America's Voice is funded chiefly by the Carnegie Foundation. It wants immigration enforcement not to deport the illegal invaders.

The Huffington Post also believes that immigration has somehow stopped: Despite Low Migration, GOP Candidates Still Rely On Enforcement-Only Talking Points, by Cristina Costantini , January 10, 2010

It also quotes Douglas Massey, [Email him] head of the Princeton's Mexican Migration Project, who was saying the same thing in July: Better Lives for Mexicans Cut Allure of Going North, By Damien Cave, New York Times, July 6, 2011. Brenda Walker blogged on it at the time.

So if this bunk is going to get a lot of MSM coverage, then we need to provide you with some countervailing realities of our own:

• There is a stock of up to 20 million illegals present in the United States at this time. (And this does not count their anchor baby children).
• Mexicans are colonizing the Southwest. The shanty towns they’re building are actually called Colonias.
• The US has 8.5 percent unemployment, at a time when many of those employed are immigrants, legal and illegal.
• The Obama administration is not engaging in record deportations. VDARE.com’s Ed Rubenstein has documented that this is simply a Big Lie. Deportations are flat to down since the late Bush years. (Rosen actually reports that 2010’s deportations were fewer than 2009’s, but apparently doesn’t realize what he’s saying).
• The Obama administration is engaging in a corrupt administrative amnesty.
• Last but not least: Legal immigration continues at the rate of a million a year.

Some political realities

• Any reduction in the flow of illegals is a caused by (a) the continuing economic crisis (fewer homebuilding jobs); and (b) state and federal enforcement efforts, which are successful and popular with everyone but the Treason Lobby and Clinton-appointed judges.
• Political consultants keep saying America can’t do immigration enforcement because of the “Hispanic vote”—which, if true, would  mean Latinos had taken over the political process. Uh-oh!
• While Rosen, above, uses the word “railing” to describe candidates’ mild statement on immigration enforcement, the reality is that the candidates are, compared to normal Americans, not angry enough at illegal immigration. (And they never mention legal immigration).

Claiming immigration isn’t a problem because border crossing has temporarily slowed is like trying to tell the French in 1943 that the German Occupation wasn’t a  problem because the Blitzkrieg was over and a lot of occupation troops had gone home on leave. (I’m aware that Nazis as a metaphor are over-used, but for once it’s a pretty close parallel.)

You will note above that Chris Kromm links to the Pew Hispanic Center’s study that shows that “births in U.S.-based families” are now responsible for much of the increase. But saying that one in four babies born in the US is Hispanic is not a reason to stop worrying about immigration. And those US based families include many illegals.

Also, Kromm says that South Carolina is a state “state convulsed by demographic changes”. If that’s the case, you would think that convulsion would be something voters might consider an ongoing problem—that they might want to do something about.

So ignore Main Stream Media claims that Republicans are making much ado about nothing on immigration—they’re not actually making much ado. And it’s not about nothing.