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Hotels and restaurants in places like Chicago, Miami and just about every other city would have to shut down without waiters, maids and others with dubious credentials. The well-manicured lawns in my home town would soon become weed gardens in the absence of the Mexicans who man landscape services. Americans genuinely worry about maintaining the rule of law, but the biggest threat to that is the disrespect for law created when legislative grandstanders pass draconian measures that the authorities are incapable of enforcing… Washington efforts to reform Simpson-Mazzoli are plagued by the death struggle the two parties are conducting over...

The official roll breaks down the vote alphabetically, by state, and of course by vote. What it doesn’t do is tell you the order they voted in, which is critical to understanding (or at least inferring) motive. They’re supposed to vote in alphabetical order, but if they’re not present when the roll is called — or if they are present but would rather keep mum to see how things are shaking out — they get skipped, and can then approach the podium afterwards, when they see fit, to cast their ballot. So here’s how it went, based on a once-through...

A travesty. He’s the personification of the bill’s ills: ignorant of and incurious about its weaknesses, confused as to what’s in it and what isn’t (per his comments about Kay Bailey Hutchison’s amendment), and worst of all brimming with arrogance at the sheer nerve of conservative proles to be angry and emotional about this issue. This clip ought to push those confidence-in-Congress poll numbers into single digits, assuming they’re not there already. He also appears to have only the vaguest sense of what the Fairness Doctrine is. Rest easy tonight knowing that in these capable hands may rest the fate...

WASHINGTON (CNN) — It’s not every day a presidential hopeful sends Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff a head of lettuce, but that’s what Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colorado, is doing Wednesday to show his disagreement with Chertoff’s recent comments on how failure of passing immigration reform might affect the agricultural industry. Tancredo says he disagrees with recent comments Chertoff made that suggested if the immigration bill fails, the agricultural industry will suffer. To prove his point he is sending Chertoff a head of lettuce, a fruit basket, and a card saying, “much, much more where this comes from.” “The administration has...

But glitches with the radar and cameras have forced the project to miss its June 13 starting date, just as Congress focuses anew on border security in the Senate measure to overhaul immigration law. Officials at the Homeland Security Department insist that Boeing, which has a $67 million contract to develop the project and others, will soon put it back on track, though they are not providing a new completion date. Boeing referred requests for comment to the department. “We are making good progress,” the executive director of the border program, Gregory Giddens, said. Democrats in Congress are questioning why...

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Fred Thompson, the actor and former US senator, has given his strongest indication yet that he is preparing to launch a presidential campaign in the next few weeks. In an exclusive interview, his first with a non-US news organization, the former lawyer and star of "Law and Order", the US detective show, told The Times that his presidential bid would be based on his belief that Americans wanted change and that he was uniquely placed to provide it. “I think they perceive the reality and the reality is that perhaps this is the occasion where the man meets the times.”...

The indefatigable Norm Matloff, a computer science professor at UC Davis, pointed me to this video of an immigration lawyer explaining to clients how to pretend to look for American workers in such a way as to make sure they don't actually find any (it's at about 7:55). The law firm may take the video down once it gets some publicity, so here's the nut graf: And our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker. And you know in a sense that sounds funny, but it's what we're trying to do here. We are complying...

You can't say I didn't warn you. The immigration bill is coming back, probably as early as next week. That's what Senators Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) and Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.) agreed to today, leaving conservatives on Capitol Hill disappointed and alarmed. A conservative Senate GOP aide told me McConnell caved under pressure from the White House and Democrats. "They are going to roll over conservatives. They scheduled debate time and a vote for next week knowing full well that Jeff Sessions would be out of town." Sessions, a vocal opponent, will be in Alabama for a fundraiser with President Bush next...

"He was surprised by the reaction," Mr. Snow said of Mr. Bush's speech in Glynco, Ga., last week. "The speech in Georgia was, 'We've got a serious problem and we need to fix it.' It was not in any way designed to be pointed at Republicans." But conservative opponents of a Senate immigration bill supported by Mr. Bush reacted furiously to the president's suggestion that they are resorting to scare tactics by using the word "amnesty" in referring to the measure that would allow millions of illegal aliens to remain in the United States.

Technical Revisions CBO changed its estimates of the number of people likely to be affected by the legislation in two ways. First, CBO’s and JCT’s preliminary estimates were based on the assumption that the renewal of Y-1 visas under the guest worker program would not count against the numerical caps. Based on information from the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, CBO determined that any renewals would count as new visas under the caps, and the projected number of workers was reduced accordingly. Second, CBO revised the original estimate to incorporate the effect on illegal immigration from the overall enforcement and...

Since the beginning of 2006, when substantial immigration debate began, "the Republican Party of Texas has experienced an exponential increase in direct mail donations from supporters statewide," she said. Both phone and direct-mail fundraising remain strong for Republicans in Michigan, said state chairman Saul Anuzis. "In Michigan, seven out of nine congressional Republicans oppose the bill, our activists are publicly opposing amnesty and we are also re-establishing our brand image by fighting a Democrat attempt to increase taxes," Mr. Anuzis said. "These issues are keeping our people engaged, where otherwise we could feel a [donations] drop off." Similar reports from...

RICHMOND -- Former Sen. Fred Thompson yesterday said there is a giant disconnect between voters and politicians in Washington and that the immigration bill is the chief reason. Speaking to Virginia Republicans, Mr. Thompson, who is considering a run for president, drew a standing ovation when he said voters don't believe Washington politicians when they claim they are trying to secure the border as part of the bill. "You've got to secure the border first, before you do anything," he said. "The members say it's right here in this bill: the border. The response is, 'We don't care what's on...

June 11, 2007 issue - Does Fred Thompson have what it takes to be president? The former senator turned "Law & Order" actor, who launched an exploratory committee last week, has been dogged by rumors that he doesn't have the work ethic for a long campaign. "The book on him is he's lazy," David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union, said last week. The criticism seems fed by Thompson's time in the Senate, where he maintained a less rigorous schedule than his colleagues and was known to duck out of late-night debates. Of the 90 bills he introduced during...

If respondent answers "yes," go to 1a. If "no," go to 3. 3. How about half of your 2006 donation? Every little bit helps when it comes to reigniting the Republican revolution! If respondent answers "yes," go to 1a. If "no," go to 4. 4. How about five bucks? That will at least cover postage and processing costs. If respondent answers "yes," go to 1a. If "no," go to 5. 5. Can I ask you why you have chosen not to contribute this year? If respondent answers "Immigration," go to 6a; if "taxes" or "spending," go to 6b; if "bungled...

There has been a sharp decline in contributions from RNC phone solicitations, another fired staffer said, reporting that many former donors flatly refuse to give more money to the national party if Mr. Bush and the Senate Republicans insist on supporting what these angry contributors call "amnesty" for illegal aliens. "Everyone donor in 50 states we reached has been angry, especially in the last month and a half, and for 99 percent of them immigration is the No. 1 issue," said the former employee.

Arizona Senators Jon Kyl and John McCain might not want to mess with Michelle Dallacroce of Mothers Against Illegal Aliens. She was on Neil Cavuto's "Your World" on Fox News this afternoon to talk about the immigration bill and proceeded to cut up her Republican Party card. She then promised to campaign against Kyl and McCain, two key architects of the bill with Sen. Teddy Kennedy (D.-Mass.) and the White House. Dallacroce was particularly peeved with Kyl, whom she called a "liar" and "flip-flopper." [Video also]

The proposed immigration bill advances this still further, ironically by overthrowing part of the modern order in politics: the sovereignty of the nation-state. By evacuating national sovereignty, by establishing a series of privileges for the alien over the citizen, by ramming down the throat of the people their dispossession, it moves political power to a still more distant, abstract and unaccountable level. Under the hard rule of iron monarchs the nation-state became the agency for an unprecedented concentration of political power — no mediaeval despot ever had one tenth of the power of Louis XIV, and Louis had not one...

Apparently, at an awards dinner sponsored by "La Raza", Lindsay Graham commented on the activists lining up against the immigration bill. He said, "We're gonna tell the bigots to shut up..."