A theory, via e-mail:
Actually, Chertoff said something even more interesting yesterday. A yet unanswered question is “Why is the open borders lobby pushing for amnesty?” After all, they had it pretty good with no federal enforcement.
Chertoff and Kyl both seem to have answered that question recently, Kyl in his Wall Street Journal interview and Chertoff on Fox News yesterday: because businesses are starting to worry about efforts to enforce immigration laws at the local level. One state in the vanguard of that effort is Kyl’s (and McCain’s) home state of Arizona, where the legislature has passed numerous laws (usually vetoed) on the issue, and where the public voted for Prop 200 back in 2004.
To me that says something far more ominous than that Congress is being disingenuous or naïve on the matter. Far from simple being empty promises, this amnesty bill is actually a blatant attempt to head off any attempts at enforcement at all. After all, states and cities can’t deny services or enforce laws against illegals if the government makes them all legal.
And we all know what will happen on the enforcement front: Congress will take out a loan to buy amnesty, promising payment in the form of enforcement. Within weeks, however, Congress will file for moral bankruptcy, and get to keep their amnesty while never paying back a dime’s worth of enforcement…