The most important moment of last night's Democratic debate was Senator Clinton's equivocation on issuing driving licenses to illegal immigrants.
Why is this important? Because, you may recall, former California governor (and Democrat) Gray Davis's plan to do exactly this in 2003 fueled the successful movement to recall him from office. Gov. Schwarzenegger campaigned on an explicit promise not to issue licenses to illegal immigrants, and he beat Davis ally Cruz Bustamante by 17 points.
Which is to say: There are plenty of Democrats, believe it or not, who have qualms about issuing licenses to illegal immigrants. The reason they feel this way is that, as Christopher Caldwell pointed out last weekend in an altogether different context, immigration and national identity are related intricately. Here Caldwell is describing a French proposal to base family reunification for immigrants on voluntary DNA testing:
Members of the socialist and communist parties have promised to bring the law before France's constitutional council. Introducing tests for immigrants that French citizens are not required to take violates the principle of equality before the law, they say. But how, exactly, is equality violated? Traditionally this equality principle holds among citizens, not between citizens and non-citizens. To say otherwise is to suggest that immigration laws do not have the full force of law. Patrick Weil, an immigration expert at the Sorbonne, has criticised Mr Sarkozy's immigration policies for attacking 'people who aren't delinquents, who are merely committing a breach with respect to their residence situation.' There is a logic to this. Since many identities (racial, sexual) are more important to their holders than national identity, denying someone rights over a 'mere' question of citizenship looks like an archaism. But as soon as the distinction between citizens and non-citizens fades, rights do, too.
People tend to predict that immigration will tear the GOP apart. But I have a suspicion that its effects will influence the future course of the Democratic party as well - heightening tensions between lower-income native Democrats who still cling to a sense of American identity and the graduate-schooled elites who run the party and believe that opponents of illegal immigration seek only to punish those who, to quote Prof. Weil, "are merely committing a breach with respect to their residence situation."
