One plus is that their brand of enforcement-first is not tied to achieving an unrealistic -- and unattainable without other reforms -- degree of border control. Rather, Pence-Hutchison concentrates on benchmarks tied to resources and capabilities: hiring more agents, increasing detention capacity and making certain that employers poised to hire immigrant workers have a reliable system (secure identification cards, accurate databases) to verify eligibility.
In other words, the Big Show on the Border would continue. We'd just have to spend the money on enforcement but if things continue as they are now and only a limited amount of real enforcement is actually performed, then the Pence amnesty scheme would kick in. We'd just have to look like (and spend like) we're doing something, we wouldn't have to actually do anything. Why doesn't the WaPo save the verbage and come right out and say that they're supporting a Potemkin immigration scheme?
They do have a few qualms however, and provide us with the news that "only illegal immigrants from countries that are part of the North American and Central American free-trade agreements would be eligible for citizenship."
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