As far as I can tell, there is a die hard segment here that will not cut Bush slack unless he says I'm making border jumping a felony, rounding up every illegal, and shipping them back.
Bush is not going to do that because he thinks it's a real bad idea. Why? Because it is a real bad idea.
It becomes a felony to be an illegal. A policeman finds one. He arrests one. He arraigns him before a district judge. Bail is set. He can't make it. He's hauled off to county prison. A preliminary hearing is scheduled. What, he doesn't have a lawyer? Well, the county will provide one at no cost. Now, times that by 11 million.
Then of course they go to trial with jurors being picked and courtrooms being put in use. Now, let's say they are all convicted. Well times that by 11 million.
Well, you might say we don't have to arrest and convict them all. You can just arrest them? What next? Isn't that what we are doing now?
There are solutions to the problem. One is passing federal legislation prohibiting tax dollars (schools, Medicare, Social Security) from being given to illegals. That wouldn't cost us a thing (and actually save us money) unlike trying to enforce a felony law.
Still, it's not likely to solve the problem. Which leads to amnesty/guest worker, and as much as many/most here hate it, it still beats the status quo.
There are some hardcores in that regard. But there are far more people who say secure the borders first, and then we'll talk about what to do with the people here. And that is a rational position held by folks such as Krauthammer who think we should have amnesty for those here already.
Which leads to amnesty/guest worker, and as much as many/most here hate it, it still beats the status quo.
Passing amnesty or a guest worker program before the borders are much more secure will only make matters worse by increasing the flow of illegals - just as Reagan's amnesty without border security did the same, and Bush's talk of a guest worker program has caused illegal immigration to jump significantly.