Thursday, June 07, 2007

Immigration

Well, what to say. There's some good and awful in the bill, though with potential moving parts it's hard to know for sure. The real thing to take away is that much of the "bad" is bad that Michelle, Lou, and I can all agree on. It isn't in there because it appeals to Republican/conservative voters, it's there because it appeals to elite business interests.

From a conservative perspective, there's amnesty (bad) and nothing serious to prevent or change the incentives for illegal immigration from scary scary Mexico. The point system rigged towards better educated immigrants and away from the family system will change the character of legal immigration somewhat, but won't change illegal immigration at all. A guest worker program without any path to citizenship will just lead to lots of people entering the country legally and then overstaying their visas.