My two centavos on Immigration Bill

A good discussion thread started by Kerrie Rushton of the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives going on over at RedState. Here are a few things I threw into the mix over there:

If there is no "tamper proof" form of documentation (there isn't) for everyone who is legally in this country, how do we know who is here, whether they have gone through the Z visa process assuming it is sound (which in my view it is not)? And what if many or most illegal aliens would just rather stay "in the shadows" so as to continue as they are now. I certainly think there's a probability that any terrorists would rather remain below the radar. The legislation seems to assume that its good intentions will compel everyone to move in the right direction... but people will do what they want to do.

But most of all, this whole debate over bureaucratic process and hoops prospective legal immigrants must jump through is really just an empty one. The southern border will remain open with a big welcome mat as the bill has no serious enforcement measures to control the influx of illegal immigrants.

Take the necessary steps to control the border, stemming the flow of illegals... Once that is effectively done then let's talk about paths to citizenship and all that. And over time allow assimilation to take place for those here, legal or not. I don't see the "crisis" to pass legislation to in effect give amnesty and legalization to the 12 to 20 million illegals here. They're here now and have been here for a while, and according to the pro-bill people, doing jobs "Americans won't." So let that situation exist for a few years more while the border thing gets dealt with, then let's make a deal.

This bill is worse than the status-quo.

Update (6-8-07): The Senate vote for cloture on the bill failed to garner enough votes to end debate and allow a vote on the legislation, effectively killing the bill... if not for good, at least for the time being. It will be difficult, though, for advocates of this bill to get the steam up again to bring it forward for another Senate consideration.