The news reports that arrests of illegal immigrants along the U.S. border with Mexico are at the lowest level since the Nixon administration. This indicates, according to the newpaper, that fewer people are attempting to cross the border to live and/or work in the United States. Therefore, they say, the debate on illegal immigration will move from securing the border to handling the illegals who are already here.
I have a different interpretation of the data. Fewer arrests means border security has been weakened in recent years. It's not that fewer people are coming across the border; it's that more of them are coming across without being apprehended. The motive for this misinterpretation of the data is clarified in their conclusion -- let's just quit worrying about the border and come up with a way that those already here can stay.
That's kind of like the plumber who comes to your flooded kitchen to fix the hole in your waterline. His solution to your problem: let's just mop up all this water and not worry about that hole. Sounds pretty stupid when it's put like that, doesn't it?
"Border arrests at low point." The Dallas Morning News; December 7, 2011; p. 1A.
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