Is Immigration no longer a campaign issue?

Remember that campaign issue that was purported to be one of the most important of our time but has now disappeared from public debate?
You remember -- immigration.

Immigration was a big, big issue for Greeley’s mayoral campaign last fall. Did you notice how the farther we get from that election the less we hear about it?

The few ongoing comments seem to come from a couple of regulars on the Greeleytribune.com’s chat boards who wait for an Hispanic-sounding name to show in a crime story and then pounce and demand deportation.

Meanwhile a white-looking guy in the mug shot or with a Smith or Jones surname, draws few comments. I guess those who comment feel that crime’s not so bad as long as it’s one of “us” involved. I have my doubts if the crime victim would agree.

We were told by political insiders that immigration was going to be a divisive national issue in the run-up to the presidential election. However, as Jason L. Riley points out in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal, the topic has faded and all but disappeared.

In fact, the most conservative candidate still in the race, Republican John McCain, in the past has supported giving undocumented immigrants a chance at becoming legal residents. The early conventional wisdom that a candidate had to be tough on immigration to win has proved to be false.

Riley’s column gives an interesting look at immigration and is a preview of his just-published book “Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders.”

He touches on the language aspect, one that seems to draw the ire of anti-immigrant letter writers of letters and posters of Web comments.

Riley points out that while first-generation immigrants with fewer than 10 years in the country don’t speak the language well, the percentage goes up considerably with time. More telling is that 91 percent of children of immigrants speak English well, and that climbs to 97 percent of grandchildren.

Riley believes that immigrants assimilate into the country fairly quickly, and too much attention is paid to the brand new immigrants, and consequently incorrect conclusions are made.

It’s hard not to chuckle at the stern admonitions from some that these immigrants “need to learn English” if they want to live here. English is tough to learn, with loads of peculiarities and confusing rules and pronunciations. Most immigrants say they want to learn English and don’t want to have to depend on others, but it’s hard to pick up another language, especially while holding down a hard job. True fluency takes years. Many give up their nights and evenings after a long day’s work to go to class to study English.

(Judging by some of the grammar and spelling exhibited by the learn-English crowd, they might want to go back to class for a refresher.)

Riley, who is a senior member of the conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, believes the reason immigration isn’t heard from much on the campaign trail is because despite “all the loud talk we’ve heard in recent months, via cable news, talk radio and the blogosphere, the American public seems not to have lost confidence in the melting pot.”

That may because we are all ingredients in it.