The supporters of the "reform" bill are fond of pointing to various provisions (e.g., the pitiful fines illegals would have to pay) that are supposedly tough, and of challenging its opponents to come up with something better. But the truth is that their "solution" is so bad that even the status quo is better. Far better to have 12 million illegals doing cheap labor for businessmen willing to defy the law than giving them all citizenship and welcoming the next twelve million. "Border enforcement" has been a standing joke for 20 years.
And bear in mind that when the "reform" bill is finally passed (as it very probably will be), its enforcement will be in the hands of the Democratic party, which seems likely to sweep the 2008 elections to spank George Bush for Iraq. How much of that "fence," do you suppose, will actually be built on the Democrats' watch? How long will it take Nancy Pelosi to reinstate the current preference for admitting the distant relatives of Hispanics already here, as she has already called for doing in the high name of "family values"? How hard will the immigration enforcers be told to look for, and deport, the new workers brought in for two years, if they don't go home for a year (as required by the "reform" bill) after that?
Above all, who -- if anybody -- is looking out for the long-range future of this country? In a column published in April 2006, I warned those who wanted true immigration reform that "We are at least 20 years too late." We have put up a mighty fight this year, but if the current "reform" bill is ultimately passed, that gloomy assessment will be vindicated. We are in the grip of a coalition of businessmen without foresight and politicians without scruples. And anyone who lives through the next fifty years will see the United States transformed from a proud English-speaking nation in the West European tradition into a polyglot multicultural mess.