current immigration system is backwards

this week, there will be huge demonstrations protesting immigration reform. many participants hail from a country whose leader proves a very unhelpful 'partner' in reform, despite his own country's particularly restrictive immigration policy.

mark steyn debunks the difficulty of 'living in shadows' (found via lucianne.com)

Here's my immigration "compromise": We need to regularize the situation of the 298 million non-undocumented residents of the United States. Right now, we get a lousy deal compared with the 15 million fine upstanding members of the Undocumented American community. I think the 298 million of us in the overdocumented segment of the population should get the chance to be undocumented. You know when President Bush talks about all those undocumented people "living in the shadows"? Doesn't that sound kinda nice? Living in the shadows, no government agencies harassing you for taxes and numbers and paperwork.

steyn continues by relating the relative ease of would-be 9/11 hijackers to appear legal. meanwhile, the immigration policy makes it extremely difficult for law abiding people to work the system. while the mary poppins example is great comedy, the story of a 9/11 widow being deported is heart-breaking.

a personal example: a neighbor of mine serves this country in the armed services for over 10 years in such hot spots as korea, bosnia and most recently iraq. however when he got married outside the country, the INS made it overly difficult for my friend and his new bride.

steyn closes with the absurdity of the suggested reforms--cumbersome, easily gamed, doomed to failure--which will likely be repeated within our lifetimes

Sure, believe that if you want to. It'll be good practice for swallowing the amnesty for the next 40 million circa 2025.

mark steyn should be read