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If the issue is framed properly, we can get public support. Bush should not have pushed for comprehensive immigration reform until the border is secured. The passage of something like McCain-Kennedy will trigger a land rush from Mexico. We will need troops on the border just to contain that. It is a mess of our own making.

I can recall Clinton signalling during the 1992 election that he would treat Haitian refugees differently hinting that we would accept them as politial asylum seekers. After he was elected and before he was sworn in, there was frenzied boat building activity in Haiti anticipating a flotilla of refugees landing in Florida. Clinton backed down and sent troops to Haiti, not so much to get rid of a despotic govenment, but to remove the pretext for Haitians coming to the US for political asylum.