REVAMPING IMMIGRATION

It appears Charles Krauthammer has come around to my way of thinking:

WASHINGTON -- Comprehensive immigration reform is in jeopardy because it is a complex compromise with too many moving parts and too many competing interests. Employers want a guest worker program; unions want to kill it. Reformers want to introduce a point system that preferentially admits skilled and educated immigrants; immigrant groups naturally want to keep the existing family preference system. Liberals want legalization now; conservatives insist on enforcement "triggers" first.

This has been my contention all along, that the "whole immigration issue" is complex, has many layers, is an emotional issue, and that there will never be a consensus on how all the various issues of immigration should be handled; particularly those illegal immigrants that have been here for many years.

With that in mind, doing nothing only exasperates the problem and intensifies the emotions surrounding what to do with "law abiding" border crossers who have lived here for many years and have had children (anchor babies) and as more continue to pour across the border.

Therefore, many people, myself included, want and wonder why a fence cannot be built, making our borders more secure, and give ourselves the time to wrangle with the difficult issues regarding those already here and not be over-run with new "border crossers" during the process of debate.

I had suspicions from the start and now feel justified in those suspicions that the border fence bill passed and signed by Pres. Bush last year was a ploy .... merely political pandering .... to bide time and give some cover for some elected legislators up for re-election. It appears my suspicions were spot on. Krauthammer again appears to be of like mind.

Why not start by passing what everyone says they want? After all, proponents of this comprehensive reform insist that the current situation is intolerable and must be resolved. It follows, therefore, that however much they differ in the details of how the current mess should be resolved, they are united in the belief that such a mess should not be allowed to happen again. And the only way to make sure of that is border control.

So why not pass it, with the understanding that the other contentious provisions would be taken up subsequently? Because for all the protestations, many of those who say they are deeply devoted to enforcement are being deeply disingenuous. They profess to care about immigration control because they have to. But they care so little about the issue that they are willing to make it hostage to the other controversial provisions, most notably legalization.

Read the rest of Krauthammer's The Jeopardy of Reform.