Keyboards are definately going to be popping in the air from the knee jerks by some on FR.
Bring `em on...
When they start paying their hospital bills and get auto insurance I'll consider allowing them legal status. Until that time I just see them as vermin.
I see it happening already.
"DOES THIS MEAN it may be possible to bridge the gap between the president and his conservative critics? Well, yes and no. The critics are right about many things. Our current "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" policy is unacceptable. The erosion of the rule of law cannot continue. We must secure our borders against terrorists. The critics are also right to be worried about the costs that even legal immigrants impose on social services--primarily schools and hospitals--in the communities where they settle. Any overhaul of the immigration system must deal with those costs, and it ought to include a set of provisions, both carrots and sticks, to encourage assimilation. About all of that, there can be no doubt. The only catch: Just think a minute about this list of concerns. In fact, what the critics find intolerable is not the president's plan; it's the status quo."
Look at the responses so far.
Bush's plan is the start of changing the status quo, but his critics are so angry at the status quo that they dismiss the plan as a result of it.