organized chaos

this is not good

from nro:

The Senate continues to fiddle with the Hagel-Martinez amnesty bill in an effort to make it less odious to supporters of serious immigration enforcement. But one vote in particular has exposed the real priorities of the bipartisan pro-amnesty majority. On Tuesday, 55 senators (including 18 Republicans) voted against an amendment by Senator Isakson of Georgia to delay the start of any legalization program until the border-security measures in the bill “have been fully completed and are fully operational.”

This explicit rejection of Enforcement First removes all doubt: The bill is nothing but a rerun of the 1986 immigration fiasco, which featured amnesty for nearly 3 million illegals in exchange for the hollow promise of future enforcement. The other adjustments the Senate made to the bill don’t change this—not the 370 miles of additional fencing, not the ban on felons’ getting amnesty, not even the scaling back of the guest-worker plan so that “only” 60-some million people would move here over the next two decades instead of the 103 million originally estimated by the Heritage Foundation. Without a requirement that the borders be secured before proceeding with amnesty, there is no justification for supporting this legislation.

the white house can dispute the numbers heritage came up with (and has), but the overall point remains the same: border security must come before any discussion of guest worker programs. what’s so hard to understand about this?

maybe conservatives would be able to trust president bush on this guest-worker provision if we were sure that he was just as committed to securing our borders. there’s not much evidence to suggest that committment exists. sending national guard troops to the border may be a quick fix, but we need to do more than that. it would also help to enforce existing laws, and to tear down bureaucratic roadblocks to border patrol agents who are just trying to do their jobs.

related:

Barrier of suspicion now separates Bush from GOP base–chicago sun-times
Why Enforcing Our Immigration Laws Will Largely Be Irrelevant If The Senate Gets Their Way–RWN

Technorati Tags: illegal immigration, senate, president bush