The American Spectator

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br> Pittsburg, California /p>

I'm a Republican and I consider myself to be fairly conservative on most issues. To me, the illegal immigration is a "black and white" issue; people who are in this country illegally are criminals and should (at the very least) deported back to their country of origin. You argue that deporting ten million illegal aliens won't work. That can't be proven because it has never been tried. I say let's give it a try and the place to start is here in California. We are either a nation of laws or we are not.

p>The mass deportation of criminals from this country is not the business of the UN or the Europeans. It is simply a matter of enforcing our laws. br> -- Tillman Jeffrey br> Manteca, California /p>

Conservatives are supposed to deal with the world as it is, and to understand that it is dangerous to make policy based on ideals absent of surveying circumstances. So why do so many on our side us refuse to deal with reality when it comes to the issue of illegal aliens?

Sure, it's all well and good to say we should do nothing that rewards people for breaking our immigration laws. But what then is the policy to go along with that? Rounding up and deporting millions of illegals is neither practical nor responsible, and those who insist on nothing less are, therefore, in essence, arguing for the status quo. Lawrence Henry has it right when he advises "imagine you have some administrative responsibility for the actual running of the United States." If the big problem with Bush's proposal is that it allows some of the millions of people who are working here illegally to get temporary legal status, then we need to ask ourselves, what is a more palatable solution. I've yet to hear one.

President Bush's plan can't be fully appraised without a lot more detail, and it only addresses a part of the problem. But it is a practicable suggestion for coming to grips with the issue, and for focusing law enforcement and immigration resources more effectively. It will, inevitably, to some extent "reward" those who are already in the country illegally, but, as some have already suggested, that can at least be partially resolved by imposing some moderate fine on working illegals who want to trade in their illegal status for the security of a legal one. Instead of indicating that their support is beyond reach, conservative lawmakers should be working on influencing the all-important details.

p>I don't know when the Democrats will be running the show again in Washington. But I know they will be sometime. So do we want to start working on this problem now with a reasonable guest worker program along the lines suggested by the President, combined with stricter enforcement of our immigration laws, or do we want to continue to ignore the problem and let the Democrats deal with it down the road by granting all illegals citizenship? br> -- Brandon Crocker br> San Diego, California

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