Replies

See post #278. Bush's new plan specifically addresses compelling illegals to return to their home countries once their 3 year visas expire.

Won't happen. President Bush doesn't want to enforce our immigration laws against Illegals now, and he won't do it in the future against the Illegals he would legalize today.
He hasn't made a diligent effort to deport the 300,000 foreigners currently under deportation orders.
There is no reason to believe that President Bush won't come up with yet another Amnesty plan down the road, given that his current one is the second that he's proposed thus far. He has engendered zero trust on this matter.

Also, a plea bargain doesn't have to return the world to its pre-crime state. Killers can't bring their victims back to life, but yet even some murders are plea bargained.

I'm not comparing Illegals to murderers. They're actually thieves, who are stealing their residence in our nation, in violation of our laws.
How would you fee about a plea bargain where the car thief paid a "fine" and kept your car for three years?

"How would you fee about a plea bargain where the car thief paid a "fine" and kept your car for three years?"

Been there, done that. I had a fine Z-28 back in Houston that was thief bait. After they've been stolen, you don't want them back, trust me. You just want the insurance money. The thief screws you more by letting your car get recovered than by just taking it.

OK, enough of that digression. I do understand where you were trying to go metaphorically with that analogy. Even so, the thief seldom is able to return all of what was taken. Thus, a plea bargain getting some concessions has some merit.

And here's what I want: I want all illegals to be registered. Our options on what we can do with them increase once we know who they all are, where they all live, and where they all work. So first things first, lets convince them to register themselves.

Next, I want a *realistic* way to manage 8 million illegals.

On this latter point I'm open to suggestions, but for my money what Bush has proposed (i.e. voluntary registration, voluntary self-deportation after 3 years, punishments and bans for non-compliance, etc.) is a pretty good start.

Admittedly, this is a compromise. For Registering and paying a fine, illegals gain legal status to work here for the next 3 years. So we've given up something. On the other hand, after three years each illegal has some significant portion of their lives invested in this legal program, so they now have some substantial incentive to comply with the self-deportation requirement after their 3 years are up. On this point, we have suddenly found a way to deport 8 million illegals in the next 3 years.

Logistically, it would be a challenge to make it happen any faster than that time period even with our military involved, and that alternative style of forced deportation certainly wouldn't be great for our international reputation (for whatever, if anything, that is worth).