Two cheers for the shadows
Power Line
Below, via NRO, is the president's speech on immigration reform. The speech does not qualify as "mush" from a "wimp" but neither, in my estimation, does it point the way to a proper solution to the problem of illegal immigration.
In his first point, President Bush outlined measures for substantially increasing our control of the southern border. The devil is in the details, of course, but the president's approach -- more border patrols, provisional use of the National Guard, and new technology -- seemed positive on its face. His second point, a call for a guest worker program, strikes me as defensible. It is plausible to believe that such a program, in conjunction with the enforcement measures outlined in point one, would significantly reduce illegal immigration. In theory, the president's third point, sanctions against employers who hire illegals, would further reduce illegal immigration. But I'll believe in a true regime of tough sanctions when I see one.
President Bush did wimp out, and fatally so I think, on his fourth point, i.e., what to do about illegals who are already here. He purported to advocate a middle ground between "an automatic path to citizenship" and rounding up all illegal aliens and sending them home. That "middle ground" turned out to be providng a path to citizenship that is not automatic but which, the president indicated (and anyone who knows how the world works knows), would lead to citizenship for a great many illegals.
But the real middle ground between an automatic path to citizenship and deportation is no path to citizenship and no mass deportation. That ground does entail lots of people living in the shadows, but we shouldn't reject a policy based on an unpleasant metaphor. Those who broke the law to come here elected to live the life they lead. Since, in theory, they deserve to be deported, we have no obligation to give them anything more than what they get now, which clearly is not that unattractive compared (as it should be) to the alternatives. This is not to deny that illegals who have been in the country paying taxes for years have a case for our sympathy. But to provide illegals a path to citizenship would, as the president said about an automatic path, "invite further waves of illegal immigration."
This means that Bush's proposal taken as a whole is probably self-defeating.
powerlineblog.com
article.nationalreview.com
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