Tom,

Thanks for pointing out yet another piece of depressing policy from the Bush administration. Before reading this I would have said that Bush is just trying to secure the Hispanic vote for 2004, but given the statistics pointed out in this article, that doesn't really seem plausible. Beyond Bush's strength on national security and tax cuts, I can't think of any to vote for the guy, other than the "unusually weak" crop of democratic contenders. Clearly there is a plan at work here, but I'll be damned if I know what it is.

I can actually understand some kind of amnesty towards existing illegal immigrants, as the cost of tracking them down would be astronomical and we would likely only find a small fraction of them. However, encouraging more and more illegal immigrants to come here while giving only lip service to tighter immigration standards is complete insanity. This type of policy brings in the type of person who generally takes more from the public fund than he puts in, and you don't have to be a PHD to see where that gets you.

Hopefully this ridiculous policy has no chance of becoming law, and GW is just trying to look like he cares about illegals, all the while knowing that this idea will get canned. Somehow I doubt it, though.