According to Thompson, I'm not "misunderstanding" him at all.
From his interview with Christ Wallace on Fox News, March 11, 2007...
Now, you said, "Look, it's just not realistic that we're going to round up 12 million people and ship them all out of the country."
THOMPSON: Well, that's true, as a general statement. We woke up one day after years of neglect and apparently discovered that we have somewhere between 12 million and 20 million illegal aliens in this country. So it became an impossible situation to deal with.
I mean, there's really no good solution. So what do you do? You have to start over. Well, I'm concerned about the next 12 million or 20 million. So that's why enforcement, and enforcement at the border, has to be primary.
The way to get rid of these people is to shut down their biggest employers. That's right. Shut them down. Completely. One after another in quick succession. Serious prison time. Massive fines. At the same time, at least 20,000 troops on the border with shoot-to-kill orders.
That's how it's done.
Anything else is nonsense.
WALLACE: Well, let me put up on the screen something that you said last year about illegals, and let's take a look at it. "You're going to have to, in some way, work out a deal where they can have some aspirations of citizenship but not make it so easy that it's unfair to the people waiting in line and abiding by the law." Now, you said, "Look, it's just not realistic that we're going to round up 12 million people and ship them all out of the country."
THOMPSON: Well, that's true, as a general statement. We woke up one day after years of neglect and apparently discovered that we have somewhere between 12 million and 20 million illegal aliens in this country. So it became an impossible situation to deal with.
I mean, there's really no good solution. So what do you do? You have to start over. Well, I'm concerned about the next 12 million or 20 million. So that's why enforcement, and enforcement at the border, has to be primary. I think most people feel disillusioned after 1986 when we had this deal offered to them before, and now we're insisting that, you know, we solve the security problem first, and then we'll talk about what to do with regard to other things — certainly no amnesty or nothing blanket like that.
But figure out some way to make some differentiation between the kind of people that we have here. You know, if you have the right kind of policies, and you're not encouraging people to come here and encouraging them to stay once they're here, they'll go back, many of them, of their own volition, instead of having to, you know, load up moving vans and rounding people up. That's not going to happen.
Thompson has since come out even stronger on this issue.
You are a liar and you should be ashamed of yourself.