Looking over the unhinged rage over the immigration compromise bill, I can’t help but laugh.

The one part of the bill that makes any sense either way is the part being called “amnesty” — exactly what the wingers are whining about! Recent estimates place the illegal immigrant population in the US at 12 million, so realistically speaking you can’t deport every single one of them like the nativists are demanding; it’d be like deporting the entire population of Ohio. On the other hand, in the immediate term you have to figure out who is here, so you can’t just blanket legalize everyone. It makes sense to have some sort of process.

What REALLY needs to be screamed about is (inherently) more a job for the Left: our ridiculous labyrinth of regulations on legal immigration. Between the double standards & the mess with work visas, our legal immigration policy is a lump of bureaucratic, xenophobic, corporatist nonsense, and that lump needs to be cut out. In the long run, with the dismantling of the State, the concept of border security will fall from necessity; until then, it is obvious what the most sensible strategy is: make it so simple to come in legally that only threats would even bother to go the illegal route, where they can be treated accordingly. Yet because of the “Too Many Mexicans!!” chorus, resources that could’ve gone to actual security are destined to go towards hunting down poor people like dogs because of their skin tone.

Edit: When it comes to the discrepancy between how the Right sees foreigners who want to be Americans and foreigners who don’t, Ka1igu1a speaks the truth:

What the fuck, Newt? The Mexicans are nothing but a threat to suck off the tit of our welfare state while you see a potential Adam Smith wing of the Palestinian people?

Heh…