Well, from the most recent NYT article,

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/us/20immig.html?hp

the immigration bill sounds sort of like "No Undocumented Worker Left Behind", i.e. another Bush/Kennedy "compromise that sounds good on the surface, but will prove to be a tragic mess two or three years down the road.

I mean, giving current undocumented workers legal status with the new "Z-Visa" sounds great.... but apparently the terms are that you can stay and work in the US for another 2 years, then have to leave the country for at least a year, then you can return to work for another 2 years....the go home again and wait another year before coming back here to work for two more years...and hoping that you get regular immigrant at some point.

(not to mention the "new" preference for "highly skilled" immigrants, as if the undocumented worker problem is all about Mexicans with PhDs who are wading across the Rio Grande....)

That being said, the bill is useful in that it provides enormous opportunities for political mischief from the Democrats (Pelosi should suggest that Bush go on a promotional tour to push the bill a la his "Social Security reform" tour of 2005) in the hope that the GOP base will implode upon itself in one extremely nasty hissy fit.

Posted by: p.lukasiak at May 20, 2007 12:50 PM | Permalink to this comment