Mickey Kaus (I know, but at least I’m not talking about Andrew Sullivan!) derides Fred Barnes’ suggestion to toughen the immigration triggers, pointing out, as we all (except for the bill’s authors) know by now, that Phase One of the amnesty (the probationary status) doesn’t depend on the triggers. But that got me thinking about the consequences of toughening the triggers — if the bar is raised for Phase Two of the amnesty (the Z visa), that might simply increase the likelihood that the objectives will never be met and that all the illegals will just stay in their probationary amnesty status indefinitely (because, as I pointed out Tuesday, temporary status means never having to say good-bye). So, if your goal is to legalize the illegal population one way or another, and you see the Senate bill starting to fall apart, you might want to toughen the triggers to dupe enough skeptics into going along, confident in the knowledge that the failure to meet the targets won’t really make that much difference.