And they thing conservatives are stupid….

Regarding the borders, there is a very straight forward solution, enforce the citizenship laws on the books within the country, not at the border.

As long as employers, both company and individuals, employ aliens with no policeing, fines, retribution, etc., the Border Patrol has a thankless and impossible job.

As long a aliens have guaranteed emergency health care(no question asked), guaranteed schooling(no questions asked), guaranteed community college in CA(no questions asked) and guaranteed citizenship for a child born in the USA(by law), poor people will continue to risk their lives crossing our border.

We all know the reason citizenship laws are not enforced. The hispanic vote in a 50/50 divided electorate can make the difference to keep a political office and the business lobby in DC(with contributions to offer) likes the cheap labor.

As I am being compared to great poets, I would like to quote William Shakespeare, “Would a rose, by any other name, not smell as sweet?” Would guest worker visas, for those who are here unlawfully, not amount to amnesty by another name? Scott makes a good point, too… No, Native AMericans would not be willing to pick vegetables or build houses in the hot sun for $10/hr, but maybe for $15, or $20, or even $25. The houses just wouldn’t “not get built” (though considering the aesthetic quality of modern housing developments, that may not be such a bad thing).

A far more obvious point is that one of the fundamental rights/responsibilities of a nation in the realm of self-preservation is the ability to defend its teritorrial borders. America IS a nation, Americans ARE a distinct people. We are not yet some universal amalgamated hodge-podge (which would make us a non-nation). If anyone, Mexican or whatever, wished to become an American, there are provisions for doing so. In the meantime, keep ‘em out!

Telling indeed Andy. They keep teasing us with their threat to go… get it ove with already

How come we hear about moonbats ‘wanting’ to emigrate away from here, still hanging around and kvetching? The fact that they haven’t followed thru on their empty threats give lie to our evil empire image.

Simply put, we’re as good as it gets, and spreading our fundamental liberty, justice & pursuit of happiness mores around will only help make the world, flawed as it/we is/are, a better place for all.

I don’t think Bush got a fair hearing of his ideas/plans. But in any case, there has to be a national dialog about the pros and cons without the hyperbole from both sides. A blanket amnesty — or worse, quasi citzenship via drivers licensing and sanctuary communities — won’t work any better than mass deportation.

In a way this is yet another Gordian Knot that needs to be cut. Weed out (deport) the antisocials and freeloaders to include reserving social benefits stricty for citizens and legally integrate those that can contribute.

We conservatives really need to look closely at this, otherwise we WILL suffer unintended consequences.

My HTML tags didn’t work… The first paragraph was supposed to be a quote.

You certainly could not find enough native born Americans to work in 80, 90, 100 degree weather pouring concrete, framing houses, etc. to keep this sector economically feasible.

Sounds like Central Ohio… I’d guess 25-35% of all the roofing/drywall workers here are illegals being paid at $10/hr.

If we lost these surplus workers, and market forces caused that same job to suddenly pay $15-$20/hr.- how many more Americans would be willing to do the same work?

All that Bush is trying to do is get a grip on an already existing situation that CANNOT otherwise be dealt with. I agree that driver’s licenses, medical care and education for Spanish speaking children must also be addressed, but to ignore the reality of migrant worker driven business leaves us with no solution to a large and growing problem.

I am only a dad, a small business owner and conservative blogger; surely someone in our chain of command can negotiate something that gives us cooperative control of the North American coastline, better rules for foreign nationals in our health care system and a foot in the door of more markets. We’ll give up some things, surely, but what we will gain is a real chance at defending our nation, a better stance against China in the latter half of the 21st century, and a nice position over the European Union. I’m not saying that I am some kind of savant and see something no one else does; I am just watching the administration make decisions and like an adequate chess player, extrapolated a logical conclusion from it. Now that I see it, it makes sense to me. I am confident that there are egg heads in the mix figuring out the details, and as a citizen it will be my job to make noise to make sure that the interests of greed don’t hamstring the idea by cutting corners.

These are just a small number of ideas; I’m sure that we can put our minds to work on SOLVING the problems instead of poo poohing open borders. We will NEVER be able to secure those land borders, no matter how much red tape, greenbacks or military hardware we apply to it. Let’s REALLY fix the problem.