I think Rove and Bush et al are on the right track with regard to immigration. Their ideas aren't perfect, but they're a lot closer than most other ideas I've heard.
LOLROTF
So, let me get this straight - we have 12 to 20 million illegals here, yet we expect them to leave then come back as temp workers then leave again. Why would they? What is their differential benefit? Why would they jump through all these hoops instead of doing what they do now?
How will a limited guestworker program keep 2 million desperate people from swarming through our wide-open borders every year?
How much will we have to expand INS bureaucracy, which is already big, fat, slow, and clogged?
How many dependents will swarm through as well? Who will pay for their schools and medical bills?
How will all of the above affect our taxes, infrastructure, ecology, congested cities, and suburban sprawl?
Make no mistake - what the Bushes and Roves of the world want is to please themselves and their Big Business buddies, while shielding themselves from the social consequences in their secluded gated communities with private guards. If all what they want comes to pass, this great country will be reduced to a gigantic banana republic, Latin-American-style.
Seal the borders. Open new Ellis Isle's in El Paso or San Diego or wherever. Allow workers to enter through the official points, and when they do provide them with ID and background checks. Begin checking all non-citizens found anywhere in the country for the official ID. Those that have it are free to go about their business, those that don't get deported without hesitation.
Yes, those that are already here can be expected to play by the new rules. They're here because they want to be, and the safe, risk-free way to be here will be by playing by the new rules. If you make it possible for them to abide by the rules, they won't be compelled to break the rules.
People won't swarm over the border. Those that want to enter and work will do so officially and legally through the checkpoint. There will be high risk of jumping the border illegally because border security will be improved and the prospects of getting caught without the official ID will be prohibitive.
The INS bureaucracy will expand little. The officials who managed Ellis Isle didn't need much in the way of bureaucracy, and there's no reason why we can't do it that way again.
Dependents will stay in Mexico. The program is for workers. I could just as easily accept a system where dependents are allowed in provided they aren't entitled to public welfare services. (Actually, the real solution to this immigration problem, as well as a whole lot of other problems, is to eliminate public welfare services entirely. But that's a whole nuther can of worms.)
Taxes needn't be raised. Existing infrastructure needn't change, beyond the issuance and checking of a new guest worker ID. Congestion and urban sprawl isn't an issue, as neither are within the authority of the Fed to regulate. Besides, as you say most of them are already here anyway.
You may not like Bush or Rove. That's fair, it's your prerogative. But at least take the time to think about their ideas before dismissing them as coming from self-centered lunatics hell-bent on destroying the country. Inflammatory rhetoric about wanting to turn the country into a banana republic doesn't improve your credibility much.
