Immigration Law

CHERTOFF: FIRST WE BRING THE PUBLIC TO THEIR KNEES AND THEN WHEN THEY BEG FOR MERCY....

By Greg Siskind

Well, that's basically the current immigration policy of the country. Enforce to the point that the economy is falling apart and then have Congress finally create a workable guest worker program. And, by the way, we can deal with those twelve million people illegally here when Americans are feeling generous. Really, this is what he said in a roundtable with bloggers:

As we become more and more successful with enforcement we're going to see more and more stories like the one in the paper, The New York Times, today about the tomato farm that's going out of business because they can't get workers. And so we're going to have to then offer people who are no longer using illegal workers some legal way to satisfy their labor needs. And that's why I think Congress will have to turn to expanding and streamlining the temporary worker program beyond what we've been able to do administratively. I think that will be the next step. I think those two things are inevitable.

The last piece will be what do you do with the 12 million who are here -- the 11 million people who are here. And I think that's the hardest nut to crack and the -- you know, once we establish the other pieces of this, the public will have to decide whether they are -- how do they balance the humanitarian concerns, the respect for the rule of law, and the practical realities in order to deal with this population. So that's my best estimate of how it's going to turn out. Now, over what period of time? I can't tell you. But I think that in the end at least we've begun to really deal with the problem seriously, and that's a good thing; that's a good thing.

Full post as published by Greg Siskind's Blog on April 07, 2008 (boomark / email).