The Tancredo branch of the GOP has taken to insisting that they will support comprehensive immigration reform after we give them what they want – The Wall and The Purge. Any student of history and politics can tell you what will happen if we follow that course. The Wall and Purge crowd will get what they want and the issue will be left there.
President Bush is right when he says that “All elements of the issue must be addressed together.” If the border fence crowd seriously want to secure the borders before allowing other aspects to move forward, the solution is to write that requirement into a comprehensive bill: No other elements of the bill go into effect until their precious wall is built. But if they were honest they’d tell us they don’t really want comprehensive reform, they don’t want increased legal immigration, they don’t want a new crop of entrepreneurial, hardworking, taxpaying citizens to make all our lives better. They don’t want the surest bet to relieving the pressure that causes illegal immigration and the best way to actually know who is coming here. No, what they want is The Wall and the Purge. They want closed borders, except, of course, for the buses taking millions back to Mexico. They’re trying to sell us a pig in a poke and I’m not buying.