As people actually read the immigration bill, the picture of just how much of a mess it is becomes clearer:

For weeks, U.S. senators wrestled among themselves and with White House officials over the question of what mix of skills, background and experience prospective immigrants should bring to their new country.

The answer they came up with, embodied in the immigration bill now on the Senate floor, would represent a radical shift in the philosophy of the U.S. immigration system. Rather than focus on reunifying families, the system would emphasize bringing in better-educated, higher-skilled immigrants who would help the United States compete in the world economy. […]

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), one of the leading Democratic presidential candidates, is serving notice that he will try to change the proposal on the Senate floor, to give a higher value to reuniting families. The Senate will resume debate on the measure when it returns next week from the Memorial Day recess.

Obama has called the point plan a “radical experiment in social engineering.” In a speech last week, he said the bill “fails to recognize the fundamental morality of uniting Americans with their family members. It also places a person’s job skills over his character and work ethic. How many of our forefathers would have measured up under the point system? How many would have been turned back at Ellis Island?” (emphasis mine)

Good point.  As nonsensical as our immigration policy already is, treating people like commodities within an even more complicated system isn’t smart.  On this matter, Obama is correct.  Problem is, he’s more correct than he is willing to admit: of course this plan is social engineering, yet by the nature of the concept any central planning of immigration is social engineering.  No matter what the criteria is, it all boils down to the federal government attempting to dictate (despite the futility of such) via policy the future makeup of U.S. culture.

If he wanted to turn his point from a essentially meaningless soundbite into a signal of a better strategy (which he doesn’t), then he’d call for tearing down the entire immigration maze, stating his case as “look, there’s no reason for the US to waste time & money chasing down people who just want a better life.  By treating migrant workers like invading hordes, all we’re doing is making it easier for the few who DO come in with bad intentions by letting them blend in with a crowd”.  Alas, Barack Obama isn’t going to hire Thomas Knapp as a policy adviser anytime soon…