What Cannon's plan gets right...

The plan from Congressman Chris Cannon's Advisory Committee runs 31 pages. Much of what it advocates makes sense.

This is how elected officials should be solving the problems we face. Demagouging an issue for political advantage is wrong, and it does not matter if the demagougery comes from Bill Clinton or Tom Tancredo, not does it matter if the issue involved is Medicare spending or immigration.

It gets everything right, particularly the need for a comprehensive approach. You see, not only will only giving one group what they want scuttle chances to get the rest of the needed reforms done, but it also will ensure that the new law is going to fail miserably. Because not only do we need to improve security, but we need laws that make sense. The only way that it will happen is if everyone gets something they can take to their various groups. It also means that people need to be told that if they want to take their marbles and go home, the resulting bill will not reflect what their concerns.

Another big thing it gets right is in making sure that people who deal with this plan are trated with respect and dignity. I don't care whether immigrants are here legally or not, they are still human beings and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity - that is non-negotiable.

Finally, it is correct to emphasize simplicity. As Dafydd at Big Lizards has outlined, the current system is a mess of complexity that not only has broken down, it has defied common sense. When an immigrant can't make his naturalization ceremony due to wounds suffered in combat, then re-scheduling should be a no-brainer. Take the guesswork out. Make it easy to understand. Because if there is a confusing, complex, and arbitrary system, it becomes easy for the average American to understand defying it. Take a good look at the numbers I ran, and you can quickly realize that it won't take that big of a percentage of the American people defying a law to render it unenforcable.

Take a good look at the plan. Then ask yourself, "Does this really sound like amnesty?"