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Not just to you, but to all who say "an illegal is an illegal".

On an academic level, I agree 100%. In fact, I go further -- a person who is illegally here 1 day is LESS of a criminal than a person who has been here illegally for years. It's like rewarding people for breaking the law more, and punishing those who weren't smart enough to start breaking the law 5 years ago.

But those who have been here continuously for 5 more more years ARE different than those who come and go. For the most part, those who are just doing this for a job to send money to their families back home aren't here for 5 years away from home.

These instead are the people who, other than the important fact that they didn't go through the proper procedures, really want to be a part of america. These are the people who bought the house down the block from you. Their children are playing with your children. They are at the PTA meetings, on the HOA boards.

OK, not all of them are like that, even at 5 years. I don't particularly like arbitrary things like using years as a proxy for integration.

But there ARE illegal immigrants who HAVE integrated into our society as much as they can being illegal. They aren't the ones who want to return california to mexico. (not that I see the down-side in that :->). And short of interviewing and investigating every one of the 12 million illegals to determine which are "integrating" and which aren't, setting a 'years' requirement is a good first step. (Anybody have the number that have been here more than 5 years?)

And while it sounds great to say "send them back to Mexico to wait in line", what Bush said is true: "We must always remember that real lives will be affected by our debates and decisions, and that every human being has dignity and value no matter what their citizenship papers say".

We want the MS-13 gang members gone. Heck, we really want all of them gone. But if we AREN'T going to make every one leave, if we are going to provide a path to citizenship for some, it is just "mean" (even if it is just) to uproot them and send them back to their home country unemployed, with no roots (because their family and friends are all in america), just to satisfy the logical complaint that people shouldn't get to stay here while waiting in the back of the line.

It could be worse, the Senate wants to put them in the front of the line. With the President's proposal, the only benefit they get is that they continue to live here while working for their citizenship. That's a real benefit, but in return when they do become citizens they are already productive members of our communities, like the man Bush mentioned who served in our armed forces defending our country before he was a citizen.