The following is from my brother:

“There was a political subtext to the decision and to the regulatory action that brought it about. Having lost on the “amnesty” bill, last spring, and with no previous history of trying to enforce the laws against hiring illegals, the Bush administration decided to launch this “fire all your employees with non-matching social security numbers” initiative, in California, right at the beginning of the harvest season.

Let’s be extra special sweet and generous and give them the benefit of the (very small) doubt, stipulating that they weren’t just cynically trying to create a cause celebre. Taken as a genuine initiative, the best one can say for it was that it was an extraordinarily ham-handed attempt to begin enforcing a law they had been ignoring for over six years.

We have somewhere between 11 million and 30 million illegals in the country. Nobody thinks that a smart approach to that problem involves putting them all out of work overnight (along with who knows how many innocents – I’ve got some experience dealing with social security number issues in the banking context and, believe me, the government makes lots of mistakes). No one on the responsible end of the amnesty opposition was calling for this.

Job one is to get control of the border – a task that the Bush administration seems remarkably reluctant to tackle despite the national security issues it poses. Once the border is secure to the point that a deportee can’t just turn around and walk back in, we’ll talk about amnesty for those who are here already, what kind, how much and to whom. As part of that amnesty, we’ll create significant sanctions for those who get caught here illegally (which will encourage most of them to go home on their own). Then, and only then, do we start employer enforcement.

If the administration wants to start doing something immediately, let them start deporting the illegals who get picked up for criminal violations. Start jailing deportees who return illegally. Start the process of cutting off federal funds for cities and states that declare themselves “sanctuaries” for illegals.

Captain Ed is usually pretty sensible. This time, he missed the target by a mile.”

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