There is no phenomenon more important in shaping American policy, at home or abroad, than the huge tide of immigration rolling in across its borders. In the home stretch of George W. Bush’s presidency, a vast amount of attention is still given to the analysis of his inclinations. As the imminence of his departure begins to drain the interest from that exercise, the same attention will be transferred to Hillary Clinton and John McCain. That is wilfully blind. The scale of immigration that the US is facing is so large that the subject will come to dominate all of its politics. The past fortnight has given us a taste of the future. Aerial photographs of the sea of people demonstrating in Los Angeles on Saturday suggested the crowd was half a million strong. There were 300,000 in Chicago on March 10, 50,000 in Denver, 20,000 in Phoenix, and 10,000 in Milwaukee. Their immediate target is the Bill to clamp down on illegal immigration, which the Senate will begin considering today. The House of Representatives has already passed a version that would make it a crime to be in the US illegally; impose new penalties on employers who […]