** Update: More good thoughts on supporting workers, not handing out citizenship, at American Thinker.

** Update: Seems I will have my choice after all:

The Senate Judiciary Committee last night approved a plan that would put millions of illegal aliens on a path to U.S. citizenship, would let them stay here while applying and would not punish their unlawful entry as a felony, contrary to a House-passed bill.

I hate to burst people’s bubbles, but our constitution doesn’t allow for laws to be enacted pro-actively. The 11-12 million illegal immigrants now in country could never be held as felons under a new law passed this year. So reality came through and Congress decided to not try and make believe they had done something while doing nothing!

The plan approved by the committee — taken from a bill written by Sens. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat — would fine current illegal aliens $2,000 each. The bill also would require aliens to undergo criminal background checks and mandate that they maintain employment over the six years they wait to get in line for full citizenship, a process which takes several more years.

That is the proper penalty for improper paperwork. And yes, we still need to secure our borders and punish employers who still side step registering their workers. That goes without saying.

Addendum: Governor Ahnold says it well today. Let’s come together on this path so we make progress instead of waste time.

Marine Lance Cpl. O.J. Santa Maria is a fine example of this. He is an immigrant who was living in Daly City, Calif., when he enlisted in the Marines. During the Iraq war, he was severely wounded. Because of his military service, he was granted citizenship. When the oath of citizenship was read to him, he stood up from his wheelchair in pain and in tears. “It’s for the respect,” he said later when asked why he stood. “I’m taking an oath to the Constitution of the United States of America.”

** Update: I wish this was my choice, rather than the Amnesty or Deportation.

With Republicans deeply divided, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Monday to legalize the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants and ultimately to grant them citizenship, provided that they hold jobs, pass criminal background checks, learn English and pay fines and back taxes.

With Republicans deeply divided, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Monday to legalize the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants and ultimately to grant them citizenship, provided that they hold jobs, pass criminal background checks, learn English and pay fines and back taxes.

If we could rally behind this immigrant workers would be documented, paying taxes and hopefully joining health care insurance pools. Without this we will have nothing – end update.

I am getting the impression some people don’t understand the stakes in the illegal immigration issue. If there is any policy which will ensure the GOP loses Congress next year it is the idea of mass deportations for what is, in the end, a crime of improper work papers.

I posted earlier on how the ‘illegal alien’ is an aberration from a fantasy number cooked up in DC by some faceless bureaucrats. The difference between a legal and illegal alien is whether the worker made it under the mythical number of ‘allowable’ guest workers. This idiotic concept that DC knows what the economy can tolerate in terms of guest workers, and the idea that number is fixed all year, is why good people fail to get registered with the proper work papers. Anyone who thinks this number dictates the goodness of someone is just plain dumb. That number is not from God, it is a wild a$$ guess. So when there are more people who can be absorbed in the economy than this mythical number predicted, it does not make the extra workers ‘illegal’, it makes that mythical number irrelevant.

The market is too dynamic and seasonal for someone in DC, pretending to be ominopent enough to pull a number from someplace ‘soecial, to define the perfect magic work force number for the coming year.

A good guest worker program would allow the market to ebb and flow while US unemployment stayed below a certian number (easily 5%). As US unemployment rose restrictions would come into play in the top job areas (anyone thinking an engineer making $110K/year is going into the produce or construction business is just not being realistic – not to mention most engineers I know should be nowhere near carpentry tools).

In that post I added a poll showing most of us our not interested in Amnesty or giving people here illegally a short cut path to citizenship. But the far right is making this an ultimatum with no choices, and it will rue the day it did. Because, simply put, I will take amnesty over massed deportations any day of the week.

A crime of improper paperwork is something like not having a proper business license, or not filing your taxes, or not registering your new car. These ‘crimes’ carry fines as punishment, not being ripped from your job and school and dumped on the streets. I am all for deporting immigrants (legal and illlegal) who commit certain crimes, including repeat DUI’s or reckless driving. But not having the proper paperwork? If 20% of illegal immigrants are in fact criminals, then that means out of the 11 million illegal immigrants I can see deporting 2.2 million – leaving 8.8 million to become documented (with a fine for not doing their papers right) and guest workers.

But rounding them all up and goose stepping them to the border?

I totally dislike amnesty. I think it is unfair to all those who worked within the system to get work permits and citizenship. But if I am forced to chose between that and deporting millions of people because the right cannot distinguish a paperwork crime from a felony, then I guess I will have to vote in Democrats and let amnesty happen.

Amnesty is a travesty. But mass deportation is a crime, a crime much worse than illegal immigration. Iy is a crime against humanity since it’s stated purpose is to throw 11 million people (and who knows how many families) into the street. It smells too much of all the ethnic cleansings of the last 100 years. It as the lame benefit of not being fatal to the targets as these other acts, but that doesn’t make it sufficiently pallatable to me.

If we have to accept a travesty to avoid a massive crime against well meaning good people, so be it. If that is all I am allowed to chose between we will have a Democrat controlled Congress, not matter how much I hate the idea. Because in this case, it truly is the lesser of two evils.

Update: Dr Sanity provides the perfect post on what America is:

“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

This poem lyrically communicates one of the oldest and most deeply-felt American values. Most Americans, although not immigrants themselves, have ancestors that came to this shore seeking freedom from oppression, and a new chance at life. America has always opened her arms and welcomed them. And we are a strong and vibrant country because of it.

The post describes why America’s diversity is her strength, and were the multiculturist crowd as tried to make the parts greater than the sum of the whole (cultures in the melting pot greater than the pot itself). Balance has been lost to the extremists on both sides of this issue. It is a sad a tragic time for America.