From this:

President Bush waded gingerly back into the debate over immigration Wednesday, as two of his top lieutenants urged Congress to grant "legal status" to an estimated 12 million people now living in the country illegally.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff stopped short, however, of endorsing a plan to give illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship. "I believe what people want first and foremost is to have legal status," Gutierrez said. "I don't think everyone wants to be a citizen."

Well, it's good that he doesn't "think" that. Of course, we can look back at the Bush administration's handling of Iraq, Katrina, and flu vaccinations for a clue that they have absolutely no clue about governance.

What would happen is that those newly-legalized former illegal aliens would be highly attracted by the prospect of obtaining the rights associated with citizenship. And, racial demagogues would take every chance they could find to encourage legal residents to apply for citizenship. Remember "today we march, tomorrow we vote?" And, considering that Mexico recognizes dual citizenship, there would be little harm in going for U.S. citizenship as well.

The Bush administration has no clue, and the great majority of those it sees only as low-wage workers would eventually become citizens. And, the great majority of those would vote Democratic:

Democrats argue that offering an eventual chance at citizenship is the only way to guarantee the elimination of an exploitable underclass of workers. "We need to establish a path to citizenship that is fair and predictable," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was to have said in remarks scheduled for delivery Wednesday night to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. "It may be a path of many steps, but the endpoint must be clear and attainable."

We're also informed:

At the Senate hearing, Chertoff said deporting all of them would be "a gargantuan task."

Needless to say, the reporter didn't try to point out that that was likely a false choice between amnesty and mass deportations.