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May I say this? Opposition to a flood of illegals crossing the border by midnight is not the same thing as opposition to immigration. I favor the latter but oppose the former. In fact, the illegal swarms from Mexico are not real immigrants at all.

The Bush administration position is that we should create a guest worker program. In one proposal, illegals already here would be granted a de facto amnesty. We are reassured that that would not put them on a path to citizenship. Sure it wouldn't. Federal judges would take about five minutes to strike down any such provision to restrict access to citizenship. The amnestied would in due course be registered to vote, and (optimistically) would go 60-40 to the Democrats. Within a decade the entire Southwest would be Blue State territory. It's tilting that way already.

I am all in favor of President Bush putting Latinos in his cabinet and in the judiciary. By all means let them know that Republicans are their friends. But if this means they must also be exempted from the normal procedures of immigration and naturalization we have lost control of our country. We might as well give up on politics.

The best thing may be to do little. Increase the Border Patrol, and withhold further supplemental appropriations for hospitals on the border. Get the voters to wise up that way. Neither "crackdowns" nor rewards are needed for those already here; let them remain in their "shadowy" state of legal limbo.

Finally, the Mexican economy. At any given moment, thousands of Mexicans are braving the rigors of the Sonora Desert to find work in a country where they don't even speak the language. Poor people especially would much rather work in their own country. But they are unable to do so because Mexico has bad laws. Property rights are messed up, and I have been told that the collectivized farms of the ejido system have never been properly privatized. Maybe the Bush team could help Vicente Fox figure out what's wrong with Mexico's economy.

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