See previous: 2007.05.17 Amnestia Sellout Roundup

Below the fold, newest items at the top:

• What Is, Is What? Immigration Reform and Congress
• The Immigration Bill: Comprehensive or Incomprehensible?
• Unillegal
• Amnesty fallout: A permanent Democratic majority?
• The J. Wellington Wimpy immigration plan: Amnesty now, enforcement later
• Right Revolt
• Going South
• Deal on Immigration Reached
• Senate immigration deal forged

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What Is, Is What? Immigration Reform and Congress
D J Drummond

There are some things that you just know are a bad idea. Leaving teenagers unsupervised on a weekend. Letting the neighbor who can't even remember your name "borrow" your new rider mower. And trusting a "bipartisan" bill from Congress.

What a piece of work, this latest thing on "Immigration Reform".

It's got something for everyone, which is what usually happens when committees of poll-driven narcissists put out public policy. There are Republicans who like it, there are Republicans who hate it, there are Democrats who like it, there are Democrats who hate it, there are both Republicans and Democrats who won't say whether they like it until they find out from their staff which position is more poll-popular in their state or district. The whole issue of Immigration Reform has been a total mess for years, and it's not as if putting Pelosi and Reid in charge of the whorehouse has improved the character of the lineup. ...

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The Immigration Bill: Comprehensive or Incomprehensible?
Fred Dalton Thompson

Most Americans know that we have an illegal immigration problem in this country, with perhaps as many as 20 million people residing here unlawfully. And I think most Americans have a pretty good idea about how to at least start solving the problem – secure our nation’s borders.   

But there’s an old saying in Washington that, in dealing with any tough issue, half the politicians hope that citizens don’t understand it while the other half fear that people actually do. This kind of thinking was apparent with the “comprehensive” immigration reform bill that the U.S. Senate and the White House negotiated yesterday.  ...

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Unillegal
Jules Crittenden

Brilliant plan to eliminate illegal border-crossing: legalize it.  Problem solved. It’s an border-crossing rights thing. Works on the principle that when sneaking across the border is illegal, only illegals sneak across the border.  I think that’s it.*  Presidential Senator Kennedy Bush Specter McGraham-Feinstein, R-D, D.C.: “Practically imperfect but not an amnesty, with very strong sanctions. We agreed!“ 

Let’s see:

Work permit program: check.

Fence/enforcement: maybe.

Illegals legalized, required to return to home country to apply for the right to return: Yes, if they feel like it.

Criminals’ rights respected: check.

What’s not to like? ...

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Amnesty fallout: A permanent Democratic majority?
Allahpundit

Kaus keeps touting “leftist” objections that might derail the amnesty, “e.g., that the bill, by encouraging another flood of illegals, will drive down the wages of unskilled Americans.” Really? Which “leftists” are touting this except for centrists like himself and Ben Nelson, whom the left regularly deride as Republicans in Democrats’ clothing? Suppressed wages for unskilled workers might have bothered them 50 years ago, but it doesn’t anymore. Not only because multiculturalism has supplanted labor as a core leftist principle, but because they’re about to climb on board a political gravy train here and they damned well know it.

First and foremost, most Hispanics are Democrats. True, George W. Bush tied a record for winning Hispanics in the 37-40 percent range. (Don’t believe the nonsense that he got 44 percent of Hispanics. Those were the same exit polls that gave us “President Kerry.” The figures were revised down in 2005.) W received about the same level of Hispanic support as Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, and Reagan did in their re-elections. But even if we are generous and grant that he got the 44 percent the Republican National Committee is claiming, that means a solid majority of Hispanics still voted for a lackluster Democrat against an incumbent Republican president who bent over backwards to court them in a time of war and low unemployment…

Note what he says about labor. If the left is looking to soothe its conscience, they can justify this to themselves as a compromise by which they’ve hurt unskilled Americans now to help them later. A huge new population of legalized unskilled workers means not only new Democratic voters but unionization, possibly on a grand enough scale to bring about a reawakening of the labor movement. If so, that’ll encompass unskilled Americans too. Granted, it’ll be a cold comfort to those Americans that the jobs they would have gotten if not for the immigrant labor glut now pay a lot more than they did before, but like I say, we’re talking rationalizations here. As for the percentage of the Latino vote Dems can expect to grab in the future, the NRO piece lowballs it: ...

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The J. Wellington Wimpy immigration plan:
Amnesty now, enforcement later
Michelle Malkin

Republicans in Washington who are embracing the Bush-Kennedy amnesty will tell you the package is tough on enforcement because the millions of illegal aliens who are here now will be deported later if they fail to meet the requirements of their so-called "Z visas."

Here is how the clueless Republican National Committee is selling it:

No Amnesty For Illegal Immigrants: Illegal immigrants who come out of the shadows will be given probationary status. Once the border security and enforcement benchmarks are met, they must pass a background check, remain employed, maintain a clean criminal record, pay a $1,000 fine, and receive a counterfeit-proof biometric card to apply for a work visa or "Z visa." Some years later, these Z visa holders will be eligible to apply for a green card, but only after paying an additional $4,000 fine; completing accelerated English requirements; getting in line while the current backlog clears; returning to their home country to file their green card application; and demonstrating merit under the merit-based system.

Those who refuse to return home, comply with the visa provisions, or who remain here illegally and don't apply, supposedly would be deported. Later. Department of Homeland Security chief and Ted Kennedy cheerleader Michael Chertoff regurgitated the same talking points at a press conference earlier today. Open-borders Republicans in the Senate are committing them to memory pronto.

Does this empty promise of the amnesty/deportation trade-off sound familiar? Why, yes, yes it does. Let me boil it down to fundamentals: ...

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Down Mexico Way
Contributed by Russ Vaughn

Try crossing our southern border; try going the other way,
To enter Mexico illegally for an extended, unlawful stay. 
Ignore immigration quotas, all their visas and their fees,
And quietly slip their border, anytime you damn well please.
Just sneak in past the policía, ignoring Mexican laws;
You’ve a desperate need to improve your lot; you have a righteous cause.
With Evil Bush in power now, destroying your liberal order,
You’ve a right to seek asylum, to trespass their northern border. ...

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Right Revolt
Conservatives won’t stand for the Bush-Kennedy immigration deal.
By Kathryn Jean Lopez (H/T: Michelle Malkin)

It’s never a good day for the White House when, at the start of his evening radio show, Mark Levin is provoked by a presidential press conference — one lauding a supposed legislative achievement — to complain on behalf of conservatives: “How about not treating us with animosity?”

That conservatives would be upset with the immigration deal was predictable. But the degree of the indignation has been remarkable. Even before there was any deal announced, Slate’s Mickey Kaus was calling the immigration debacle “Bush’s domestic version of Iraq.” Kaus is no conservative-movement guy, of course, just a smart, clear thinker. Mark Levin, on the other hand, will defend you to the death if you’re good news for conservatism. Yet he sees this deal not only as an egregious betrayal of conservatism, but also as gross incompetence on a political level. (“Is this any way to run a country?” he asked Wednesday night.)

Michelle Malkin frames the pending deal as dangerous. And she was only one among many conservatives doing so.  ...

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Going South
Jay Tea

With the likely success of the illegal immigration amnesty plan, I find myself wondering what next we can do to stem the problems caused by illegal aliens in the United States. And as is my wont, I find myself looking for a novel solution to the situation. And I think I have one.

It's time to take over Mexico.

I don't care if we annex them, invade and conquer them, buy them outright, or just make 'em an offer they can't refuse. Making Mexico part of the United States will solve a lot of problems. ...

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Deal on Immigration Reached
Bush Supports Senate's Bipartisan Compromise, but Hurdles Remain
By Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post Staff Writer

The Bush administration and a bipartisan group of senators reached agreement yesterday on a sprawling overhaul of the nation's immigration laws that would bring an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants out of society's shadows while stiffening border protections and cracking down on employers of undocumented workers.

The delicate compromise, 380 pages long and three months in the making, represents perhaps the last opportunity for President Bush to win a major legislative accomplishment for his second term, and it could become the most significant revision of the nation's immigration system in 41 years. Bush hailed the agreement as "one that will help enforce our borders, but equally importantly, it will treat people with respect."

But though immigration proponents and opponents lauded the work done to reach a deal, both sides -- including Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate -- said they could torpedo the legislation in the end, after the Senate begins debate on the bill next week and after the House considers its version in July.

The Senate deal would grant temporary legal status to virtually all illegal immigrants in the country, while allowing them to apply for residence visas and eventual citizenship. A temporary-worker program would allow as many as 400,000 migrants into the country each year, but they would have to leave after two years. And the current visa system, which stresses family ties, would be augmented by a complex point system that would favor skilled, educated workers. Most of those changes would take effect only after the implementation of tough new border controls and a crackdown on the employment of undocumented workers. ...

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Senate immigration deal forged
By Stephen Dinan

Senators and the Bush administration yesterday reached an immigration deal that offers a multistep path to citizenship to millions of illegal aliens in exchange for better border security and a new way of choosing how future immigrants are selected.

The agreement, reached behind closed doors after months of talks among a small group of Republicans, Democrats and Bush Cabinet secretaries, created little enthusiasm for the negotiators, but those involved said it is the only chance for immigration reform to pass this year.

"This is the best I think that can be done with an enormous effort on a bipartisan basis," said Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican and one of the top negotiators.

Whether it is enough to win on the Senate floor next week is in doubt. Support seemed to crumble even as the deal was announced.

Conservative Republicans argued that the bill rewards illegal activity, while liberal Democrats said it is too draconian toward illegal aliens and too restrictive for future workers. ...