The non-amnesty amnesty bill

It's like the non-apology apology, a tool proven too valuable for politicians and celebrities alike, alowing them to repair their self-inflicted damage, with out actually apologizing for the deed.

Such is the Kennedy-Bush-McCain domestic-front-surrender bill, otherwise known as the upcoming comprehensive immigration reform bill, which in all likelihood will be given some disingenuous name like the Compassionate-Melting-Pot Bill.

Hundreds, if not more are blogging about it. Many support it. Even Bill O'Reilly supports it, saying this is the best we can get. If the 1986 amnesty was the solution, you can consider me thrilled about this 'the best we can get' immigration bill, oh my. So thrilled in fact, I'm not even a Republican anymore.

Interesting commentary against the bill abound in the blogospere, such as:

From Huwie: "This deal... takes down about half of the fence that was mandated last fall"

From Malkin:

Not one—of [the many] amnesties was associated with a decline in illegal immigration. On the contrary, the number of illegal aliens in the U.S. has tripled since President Reagan signed the first amnesty in 1986.

From CTB:

The Federal immigration bureaucracy that will be tasked with administering any of these reforms will be the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). CIS is already unable to effectively deal with its existing benefit adjudication missions...

CIS has indicated it would need to bring in private contractor personnel to help deal with the monumental workload increase from reform legislation. Such contractors will invariably be quickly hired, poorly trained, probably low-bid, barely vetted and far more subject to bribery and corruption than permanent Government employees.

Not that bribery and corruption will necessarily be that necessary. In short order, the system will be overwhelmed. Whatever minimal fraud detection and prevention safeguards might be erected won’t last long in the face of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of applications and petitions to be adjudicated. What that means is the information provided on those applications and petitions, and whatever supporting documents they may have (if any), will essentially be taken at face value.

Fred Thompson, qtd at NRO:

"With this bill, the American people are going to think they are being sold the same bill of goods as before on border security. We should scrap this bill.."

Unsurprisingly it's not liberal enough for some liberals:

Among Democrats, even Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada expressed "serious concerns about some aspects of this proposal, including the structure of the temporary worker program and undue limitations on family immigration."

Reid's statement was referring to parts of the measure that would set out conditions for letting foreign workers enter the United States temporarily, and to changes in the provisions that permit legal immigrants to bring members of their families into the country.

Don't worry Senator Reid, Mickey Kaus will ease your pain:

Many of the alleged concessions--like ending "chain migration" of family members--seem unenforceable in the long run. Are we really going to give citizenship to illegals but prevent them from reuniting with their families? I don't think so. Even if we could, and even if that were desirable, and even if the provisions survived in the Democratic house, it would hardly be worth what the GOP senators have apparently agreed to: taking the risk of encouraging another 12 million illegals to evade our still-porous border controls and wait for the next amnesty. ... This is looking more and more like the Bush administration's domestic version of Iraq: a big risky gamble, based on wishful thinking and nonexistent administrative competence, that will end in disaster.

So what's the deal about this 1000 page bill that won't be published online until after it's voted on? It gives hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of illegal aliens legal status well ahead of those that are actually waiting patiently in line.

The WaPo has got details:

The Senate deal would grant temporary legal status to virtually all illegal immigrants in the country, while allowing them to apply for residence visas and eventual citizenship. A temporary-worker program would allow as many as 400,000 migrants into the country each year, but they would have to leave after two years. And the current visa system, which stresses family ties, would be augmented by a complex point system that would favor skilled, educated workers. Most of those changes would take effect only after the implementation of tough new border controls and a crackdown on the employment of undocumented workers...

This year's legislation would grant undocumented workers who came into the country before January a permit to remain. They could then apply for a new, four-year "Z Visa," renewable indefinitely, as long as they pay a $5,000 fine, a $1,500 processing fee, show a clean work record and pass a criminal background check.

My apologies go out to the computer geeks we so very need, like a guy from South Korea, whose visa expired because his paper work was stuck in the bureaucracy, who went back to South Korea to wait for his legal opportunity, just to have the friendly extended middle finger from Congress. But that's ok right, we don't need computer geeks, we need more slave labor.

Or was it a bigger Democratic Party base?

So here is my obligatory activist note. Ace wants you to change parties, after you tell your congressmen off. Others want you to try this. Or you could send your Congressmen a brick or something cliche representing fencing material. Or just contact them, House and Senate.