The immigration debate has re-opened the purity pustche on the right. When arguments from the far right are found wanting by the moderates, then cries of anger well up from those losing the political battle for the hearts and minds of the general population. Michael Barone’s reasoned analysis of what this Bill can do is welcomed breather from the firebrands running around claiming the world is at an end, the sky is falling, and the wolf is at the sheep…

To regularize the flow, we also have to do something about the illegal immigrants already here. The bill, as I understand it, would provide them immediately with a chance to regularize their status without putting them on the road to citizenship. They would have to pay a fine and would be subject to deportation for criminal offenses, but if employer sanctions were known to be enforceable they would have an incentive to regularize.

Also, to get in line for a green card and citizenship, the head of household would have to return to the country of origin — a “touchback” provision that was not in the bill passed by the Senate last May.

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The bill also contains a guest-worker program that is being attacked by immigration proponents as ungenerous. The provision would allow guest workers to work here two years — then they would have to return to their country of origin for one year before they could come back for another two-year stint.

This seems designed to create a program in which guest workers would indeed be temporary. You couldn’t make a life’s career of such work — it would tend to be a stopgap.

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Changing U.S. public policy is like steering a giant ship — it’s impossible to sharply reverse course, but you can change the direction in a way that will make a significant difference over time.

That’s what I think the Bush administration and House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas accomplished in the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill, much criticized by many conservatives. They sent the health care ship moving in the direction of market mechanisms and away from government ukase.

Barone points out all the huge progress this bill entails. Yes, it doesn’t go into fantasyland were we have the time and money and resources to round up illegals and ship them out. Which is why I like it so much. I gave up on fantasies when I was a kid.

I think this Bill will pass because the American people have been very supportive of the guest worker program in the past. And if the offer to remain here is tied to remaining crime free, the American people will be satisfied that the problem immigrants will get the boot. And those workers who are doing well here, by us and by themselves, will not be harassed for being without proper papers. The criminal element will be culled from the illegal worker population – as is right. And we will have dealt with process crimes in a manner that befits them – with fines. Because right now that is THE LAW of the land. Working without papers is a misdeamnor – not a felony. All the cries to endorce the current laws will not change the fact the current laws are inadequate to the problem at hand. We have a golden opportunity to make a big difference – or to keep the status quo. Fix it or do nothing. Those are the only real options here. And the do-nothing crowd better have a darn good reason why we cannot let the hard workers stay, get rid of the criminal element, and get rid of this underground economy. And good reasons do not include extrapolating isolated crimes to cover every immigrant worker or theoretical problems which may or may not come true. They need to be as tangible as these changes would be.

Addendum: Even O’Reilly sees the writing on the wall on this issue:

The far right wants all illegal aliens deported. This is the talk radio crew that actually believes the federal government will form roving bands of agents to pull people out of their homes and businesses.

Now it’s not going to happen. It’ll never happen. And according to a recentGallup poll, only 24 percent of Americans want it to happen. So mass deportation not going to occur, no matter how many pundits jump up and down.

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Also, any alien who commits any crime, including DUI, is gone. And any alien who doesn’t work is gone. No welfare! None for illegal aliens or their families. That is crucial.

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The new immigration bill is unfair to those who’ve obeyed the rules. It is dangerous if not tightly controlled. And it is definitely amnesty. But if the bill does not pass, things will get even worse in America.

I am happy to see my ‘one-strike-your-out’ clause was included in this bill. That is the kicker for Americans who want to fix the problem. And that neuters the hard right who use the acts of the criminal minority to smear the general population. So now all those immigrant horror stories will be answered with immediate deportation. As they should have been done. And there goes any final resistance to the bill from the broad middle of America. If the criminals will be rejected or booted then the guest workers will be tolerated. BTW, the guest worker program has polled as high as 79% support in March of 2006. In November it was 69% support. My guess is it is not this high right now, but it is still well supported.