Andres Oppenheimer’s column in the Miami Herald argues that if we don’t eventually cave on amnesty, the illegals will start rioting like Arabs. Oppenheimer isn’t some kook — he’s about as establishment as you can get. But despite having lived here for more than 30 years, he’s still doesn’t seem to get America. The very whisper of violence is a dangerous thing for the amnesty side — heck, even the peaceful demonstrations of last year were a major factor in killing amnesty. Some of the more, uh, enthusiastic restrictionists get excited about the prospect of illegal aliens burning cars, because they know, unlike Oppenheimer, that the American people would demand, and get, a reaction as sharp as it is swift. A couple days of TV pictures of rioting illegal aliens demanding amnesty and the immigration debate would be over — permanently. I don’t actually think Oppenheimer’s feared outcome is all that likely, in part because automatic citizenship at birth makes the illegal population a one-generation problem; but the fact that a mainstream figure is raising the specter of violence in a major media outlet is a sign of the elite’s desperation and despair that it will ever achieve amnesty, and more broadly, open borders. (h/t Michelle)