My Thoughts on the Republican Immigration Question

Do most Republican candidates just not get immigration?

John McCain was the only candidate in tonight’s Republican Debate to support the most recent immigration overhaul that the President has been pushing. There is a lot wrong with it, but the alternatives offered by the candidates on stage tonight was at best dismal, and at worst idiotic.

By conservative estimates, there are at least 20 million illegal immigrants in the States. To assume that all of these people are going to be rounded up, or expected to return to their country of origin to obtain work papers is utter nonsense. Most of these people are making less than 10 thousand dollars a year; how the hell are these folks going to quit their jobs, pay for a ticket home, and then sit around in their home nations waiting to return to work? It just isn’t going to happen people; everyone needs to face up to the fact that that option will never be a viable reality.

I know it angers people to think that folks who crossed our border illegally would receive amnesty over individuals who applied through legal methods, but this is the real world, and the real world does not care about what is fair and what is not. We have millions and millions of people here in this country that “shouldn’t be here” and no realistic legislation is going to change that. We need to create a system that allows us to monitor our borders carefully, but also allow for folks who want to work here in. The point of our immigration policy should be to know who is here and why, not to keep people out.

As John McCain said:

``For us to do nothing is silent and de facto amnesty,'' said McCain, 70, of Arizona, during the candidates' third debate. ``It is a serious national security problem. We need to act, my friends. And if someone else has a better idea, I'd love to have them give it to us.''