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HUME: Some further thoughts on the issue of immigration reform now from Fred Barnes, executive editor of the Weekly Standard; Mara Liasson, national political correspondent of National Public Radio; and Juan Williams senior correspondent of National Public Radio. All are FOX NEWS contributors and one of them into in particular, Mr. Barnes, but considerable comment from our viewers with his remarks last night. Here’s a few samples. Carter and Bonnie Swart from Crescent City, California write: “Today we witnessed Fred Barnes’s outright capitulation of the Democrats and the Mexican lobby.”
Terri of Los Angeles writes: “We are not anti-immigrant, but anti-illegal immigrant.”
And as for the whole panel, Rich Geiger of Pittsford, NY says, “According to tonight’s panel, the only people against this bill are folks that want a mass deportation. That is bogus.”
All right. All right, so...

BARNES: That charge is bogus. I don’t think that’s what we said. Look Brit, I love the attention. On the other hand, there is the—look, I like the feedback and it shows this is a very serious and emotional issue, as it was for the opponents who opposed the Irish, the Italians, the eastern Europeans, the Asians, and now the Mexican immigrants. We’ve always has this, the large group of Americans who thought that we would come, they’d change American and the truth is, they don’t. America is the greatest assimilation machine in the history of the world. Immigrants come here, we change them, they become Americans, it continues. We should be flattered they’re coming...

HUME: Well, what about this...

BARNES: And all we need is legislation to secure the border so they come legally rather than illegally.
HUME: Well, what some people resented was the implication of that they picked up from you that the people who are opposed to this measure are opposed to even legal immigration.
BARNES: I think a lot of them are. There’s that huge strain in the -
in the movement that’s opposed to immigration reform, people who want to shut off all legal immigration...
HUME: You conclude that there are people who favor legal immigration who do not think that there’s sufficient border enforcement and that these provisions are too easy for people who’ve already come here illegally.
BARNES: I do, but I think—I think the strand through most of the feeling is opposition to immigrants.
MARA LIASSON, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: And they’re left-wing critics, too, who think this is too onerous, I mean who oppose the bill for reasons that it’s too stiff. But look, I do think that in terms of the question of deportation, I think the question is still legitimate—if you do not like this solution for the 12 million people who are here illegally now, what would you prefer?
HUME: Well, one argument that you hear is if you have serious sanctions on employers for hiring illegals, that the jobs that draw them here will dry up and you won’t have to deport them, they either won’t come in the first place or if they’re already here and can’t find work, they’ll go away—Juan.
JUAN WILLIAMS, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: I think it’s laughable. I mean, the American economy would suffer tremendously. I don’t know who’s going to cut all those lawns, I don’t know who’s going to do all this laundry, I don’t know who’s going to dig all those wells, and pick all that fruit, but if the American economy—you know, one of the arguments coming from the left is this is going to depress wages. There’s a strong union front, you know, SCIU and others, saying no to this bill because of the guest worker program. And then you have employers who say the guest worker program it doesn’t work either because the people have to go home after two years and that’s not workable, it that going to invite more people to become illegal because they don’t go home and they need to have some training. So, to my mind, it would just—it would hurt the American economy. And I think people aren’t being a realistic in their assessment of that.

BARNES: I don’t think they are, but Brit, look at it this way, we had a labor shortage in America, so what happens is, so many of these businessmen have to, if they’re going to continue their businesses, have to hire illegal immigrants. So, is the solution to that, let’s throw all these businessmen in jail? I don’t think that’s the right solution to it. And as Juan said, it would hurt the American economy. Let’s secure the border, let’s let plenty of immigrants in...

HUME: Look, it may not be a good idea, I’m not arguing that, I’m just saying that it is an alternative to deportation. Yeah, well it is and it’s—but it’s not a viable alternative. It’s not a realistic alternative.

LIASSON: And it’s a very, very long term...

HUME: And this thing is in the presidential campaign on the Republican side for sure now. you had—Mitt Romney has taken a strong position, he’s against the bill. John McCain, of course, is one of its ardent advocates. Where does that issue stand, your judgment?

LIASSON: Well, there was wonderful dust up...

HUME: You saw this zinger that went back and forth.

LIASSON: Zinger about he should maybe...

HUME: I think we may have that.

LIASSON: Do you have it? It’s a wonderful...

HUME: Well, we should, we showed it earlier. Well, we’ll show it later when we get into the politics of all this.

LIASSON: But look, this is an issue in the Republican campaign particularly.

HUME: Will it emerge as an issue in your view, in one of the Democrats?

LIASSON: No.

HUME: Why not?

LIASSON: I think there will be Democrats who want to improve it, and this way and that way,

HUME: Are any of the...

LIASSON: ...but no, I think the consensus on the democratic side...

HUME: Among the presidential candidates.

LIASSON: Among the presidential candidates is this is a good first step and it might need to be improved. But no one is out there saying this is amnesty.

HUME: Now, the first measure to—that would have taken a big piece out of the bill was an effort today to remover the guest worker provision. That failed, but there’s now going to be an effort to cut it in half. What about that? Cut the size of it from 4000,000 workers a year to 200,000. What about that? That pass?

WILLIAMS: Well, as a matter of compromise, I’m not sure because it doesn’t make sense. I mean, they need the 400,000. They have reduced it in the negotiation from what they initially thought was closer to a million to this 400, so I don’t know.

LIASSON: But, I think what’s important here is business is a missing component of this coalition, right now. They want a bigger guest worker program and then maybe a different kind and you’re not getting the support business community that you did last year.

BARNES: Look, what you need to do is have 400,000 workers, but if it’s only 200,000, they’ll have to settle for that, but not two years here and then go back. Look have it three years and then renew for three years, but sending these people back is not something that makes sense, business-wise.

HUME: Next up with the panel, the latest views on the ‘08 presidential races. We got a lot on that. Stay tuned.

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