When it comes to immigration in America, a disconcerting truth
applies: We’re for it in the past but not so much in the
present. Since we are a nation of immigrants and, save for
Native Americans, we all have roots elsewhere, this tension
never relents. So we revere the grit of our Ellis Island
ancestors. But we build fences 30 feet high on the Arizona
border. We’re grateful to the parents of Bob Hope, I.M. Pei, and
Madeline Albright for bringing them here. But in the first six
months of 2011, we deported 46,486 immigrant parents. Now two
descendants of immigrants are running for president. Both say
our immigration system is broken. Each has a different fix. Mitt
Romney, who is English, Scottish, German, and French, and whose
father was born in Mexico, is the great-great grandson of a
carpenter from northern England. Miles Romney was among the
first Mormons converted abroad and came here in 1841. Barack
Obama, who is Kenyan (of the Luo tribe), English, German, Irish,
Scottish, Welsh, Swiss, and French, and wh