There is a lot of political support for "amnesty" or legalizing those who came over illegally. They want to give them citizenship eventually.
As the reform law looms, and people really think hard about what it means to keep millions of people "illegal" and then not allow them to become citizens, they really start to think about the consequences, which aren't pretty. It would lead to a two-status society, and when they think about people they know or work with stuck in second-class status, they don't like it.
The fight is between the politicians who want to extract more money or favors from the legislative process, or want to prevent adding more Democrat voters to the rolls in ten years.
So they bring up this border fence and security plan. It's an expensive boondoggle that won't stop half of the illegal immigration, because many "illegal" immigrants had legal visas when they arrived here. They had a passport and a travel visa, and overstayed the visa intentionally.
And, guess what - the government knows it, but they don't do much about it. The reason is because the opposition to these people is minimal. The small businesses employ them. So, there's your support base right there. If they really enforced the law, a lot of relatively wealthy Republicans and Democrats would be upset.
As the reform law looms, and people really think hard about what it means to keep millions of people "illegal" and then not allow them to become citizens, they really start to think about the consequences, which aren't pretty. It would lead to a two-status society, and when they think about people they know or work with stuck in second-class status, they don't like it.
The fight is between the politicians who want to extract more money or favors from the legislative process, or want to prevent adding more Democrat voters to the rolls in ten years.
So they bring up this border fence and security plan. It's an expensive boondoggle that won't stop half of the illegal immigration, because many "illegal" immigrants had legal visas when they arrived here. They had a passport and a travel visa, and overstayed the visa intentionally.
And, guess what - the government knows it, but they don't do much about it. The reason is because the opposition to these people is minimal. The small businesses employ them. So, there's your support base right there. If they really enforced the law, a lot of relatively wealthy Republicans and Democrats would be upset.