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You make an interesting case. I disagree with your conclusions, but it is interesting.

Too bad it won't work. There have already been a number of analyses of this plan, which elucidate (in painful detail) the flaws of it, and detail the unworkable nature of the entire proposal.

It is, in reality, amnesty. The reason I flatly state is clear: your entire argument rests on a key assumption: namely, that the government will now enforce immigration laws. If we are to judge the validity of this assumption, our only choice is to examine the past behavior of the U.S. government, especially in the last decade or two. And that examination will reveal a history of not enforcing those laws. Why should we believe they would do so, now?

An even more basic question: these aliens- demonstrated by the very fact that they are here illegally, do not respect the law. Do you honestly think that they will, now? Especially if they have to pay $1000 to "register?" Can you honestly tell me you believe this???

The Bush proposal is a rewarding of illegal behavior, and the ramifications of such a reward will be devastating. I don't have the links handy, but I've seen the analyses of already-documented increases in crime rates (and correlating prison populations), the decline of aggregate wages in areas and the decline of real-estate values, all of which have a high degree of correlation to the increasing population of illegal aliens, esp. Mexicans and Central-Americans.

Such effects- if embraced by the US government, will be a disaster. Again, as already discussed in painful detail. Therefore, since such a proposal will do immense damage to our country, and undercut the American citizens who gave their faith and trust to W., I submit that he is breaching that trust, and therefore he is proposing treachery and treason- by the definition I've already posted.

This conclusion in unavoidable.

Of course, we *could* go door to door with our military in efforts that would make the SS of 1944 Germany look civilized...

Such sensationalism- after your previously lucid comments- degrade your argument. I do not (now will I) propose such odious measures. You cannot, even at the business-end of a weapon- root and out and force out all the aliens. Such notions are naive.

What you can do, is make it so unpalatable for those who don't belong here, that they choose to go home willingly. And that is not a question of armed troops, but simply the enforcement of the immigration laws that already exist.

For the president to shirk his responsibility, and ignore those laws...?

Well, as I said before: an employee who refuses to perform his job gets fired.

"It is, in reality, amnesty. The reason I flatly state is clear: your entire argument rests on a key assumption: namely, that the government will now enforce immigration laws. If we are to judge the validity of this assumption, our only choice is to examine the past behavior of the U.S. government, especially in the last decade or two. And that examination will reveal a history of not enforcing those laws. Why should we believe they would do so, now?"

We should believe it because Bush's plan *changes* something fundamental to the entire immigration equation.

Bush's plan finally figures out a way to *register* almost the entire 8 million in our already-existing illegal alien population.

Imagine how thrilled Chuckie Schumer and his anti-gun crowd would be if they figured out how to register all 80 million U.S. gun owners under a President Hillary (shudder). Without registration, our government, even under Hillary, doesn't have the pure law enforcement and military *resources* required to locate, apprehend, and detain so many gun owners. But with Registration, sending the cops to the correct addresses is child's play.

That's why we gun owners will forever fight against a national gun registry. Mandatory gun registration would inevitably lead to gun confiscation.

Ditto for the illegal alien world. Right now our INS and law enforcement agencies don't know where all 8 million of them live and work...but that changes if they are all enticed to voluntarily register themselves and their employers. Once registered, they are a much more manageable problem. No longer does it take 20 agents to track down a single illegal alien. All of a sudden we already know where they last lived and who they last worked for, thus limited their options and establishing a very traceable trail even for those who decide to later flee our system.

Look, it's easy to bash each and every sitting President for "doing nothing" on illegal immigration, but until you honestly accept that the *scope* of our immigration problem is too large for sheer brute force (i.e. door to door raids and a round up of 8 million of them), you won't really grasp what each President is forced to accept: that we don't have the resources to be heavy handed in this matter.

What is needed, then, is finesse. We have to out think the problem, and convincing all 8 million illegals to come in from the cold anonymous underworld to register themselves is a brilliant start...

"I do not (now will I) propose such odious measures. You cannot, even at the business-end of a weapon- root and out and force out all the aliens. Such notions are naive. What you can do, is make it so unpalatable for those who don't belong here, that they choose to go home willingly."

And that's precisely what Bush's plan accomplishes.

First they register where they live and work with our government. Then they pay their fine. In return we give them a blue card to permit them to work here legally for the next 3 years.

They can even get *more* time to work here if they return home voluntarily to their countries of origin to apply for that extension. Sounds like voluntary deportation to me, doesn't it!

And the beauty of it is that those who don't wish to abide by the voluntary self-deportation are registered with our law enforcement agencies. They aren't just some anonymous member of an underground mass movement any longer. Oh no, they've registered where they live and work. Now they are far more traceable than before.