McCain says you can trust him on immigration because he now understands that enforcement has to come first. Border-state governors would have to certify that the border is secure before any “path to citizenship” (what the critics call “amnesty”) or guest-worker program begins. But if people can still come here legally and overstay their visas, and work for employers without either party facing serious sanctions, then “the border” could be “secure” without the flow of illegal immigration dropping. The McCain promise doesn’t seem to add up to much.

He defends the guest-worker program–he defended it today in Peterborough–by saying that the Department of Labor would have to certify that employers had invited Americans to apply for jobs before seeking guest workers from abroad. Again, the certification seems like a dodge. The concern of critics is that employers are using immigrant labor to undercut the wages of Americans. If they advertise jobs at wages below those Americans will take, they can get their certification and nothing important will have changed.