ARGUING IMMIGRATION: The Debate Over the Changing...

ARGUING IMMIGRATION: The Debate Over the Changing Face of America edited by Nicolaus Mills (Touchstone: $12; 223 pp., paperback original). Collected from various mainstream publications, the essays in this anthology present moderate points of view in an increasingly acrimonious debate. The authors cite statistics on the contributions and costs of legal and illegal immigration, but rarely explain how the figures were calculated. The desire to appear both reasonable and politically correct forces the writers dance around the questions that make the issue a hot topic. Readers who hold strong views on immigration will find at least one piece that confirms their opinions; undecided readers will put the book down feeling like Omar Khayyam, who, after listening to “great argument,” “came out by the same door as in I went.”