George Will, Michelle Rhee, Mel Martinez, and Jose Vargas appeared on ABC News' This Week earlier today, and all of them together with host Christiane Amanpour supported the same basic policy of massive immigration. All the guests also supported the anti-American DREAM Act, a bill that would let the illegal aliens covered by it deprive some citizens of college.

The segment (video at peekURL.com/veDtdPE with the "green room" segment embedded below) was little more than an infomercial, with all five participants shilling for policies that are opposed by most Americans now and would be opposed by many more if they were informed of the impacts. The job of Will, Rhee, Martinez, Vargas, and Amanpour is to mislead as many people as possible and find some way to sell their wares; let me try to do something about that:

1. Amanpour began the segment with the Lazarus fallacy, and later revealed that she's a beneficiary of the H1B program. As the moderator she wasn't exactly an impartial voice but served more in the role of one of Kevin Trudeau's interviewers.

2. Both Will and Martinez supported secure the border as a sales tactic to sell Americans on amnesty. Will brought up his "line of buses bumper to bumper" article and continues to mislead with deportations false choice.

3. Will (as at the penultimate link) continues to fail to acknowledge his opponents' arguments:

"If we are going to import, as we are doing, a portion of Mexico's poverty, and if we're going to avoid having a permanent submerged underclass, then we're going to have to do something to put these people on the ladder of upward mobility in this country. And, the DREAM Act may is... may be part of that. What offends some people is they say it's rewarding illegal behavior. Well, they have to make a choice."

We don't have to continue importing a sizable chunk of Mexico's population (around 14% of their working-age population lives in the U.S.) Will said "if", but most Americans (at least given how little they're willing to actually do about this issue) don't really have much of a choice in the matter. The proper policy is to avoid a "permanent submerged underclass" by encouraging them to return to their home countries and press for reforms there. And, while a major part of opposition to the DREAM Act is because it would in fact reward illegal activity, there are other reasons: it would reward corrupt politicians, it would reward the corrupt businesses that want to profit from illegal aliens in one way or another, and it would deprive some U.S. citizens of college.

4. Martinez supported free trade agreements, and suggested immigration reform through a "piecemeal" approach including the DREAM Act and increasing the H1B limit.

5. On free trade, Will (needless to say) agreed with Martinez and said that the more prosperous a country is the less chance their citizens will try to come here. Except, Will seems to have forgotten that NAFTA is one of the drivers of people leaving Mexico for the U.S.

6. Martinez claimed that immigration is not as important an issue for Hispanics as education and other issues, and Will chimes in that that's an example of assimilation. While Martinez is right to a certain extent, other polls show immigration as the top issue (link). And, immigration (i.e., obtaining race-based power) is the top issue for Hispanic leaders.

7. Will supports braindraining the world: "an enormous portion of the people receiving advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering, mathematics are from overseas. They come to our wonderful universities, we equip them to add value to our economy, and then deport them. It's madness. Every American advanced degree should come with a green card stapled to it. Let them stay." In addition to other downsides, that would have a highly negative impact on other countries. And, that's something that would probably come back to haunt us decades down the line as we end up supporting those countries in one way or other or as we're faced with mass immigration by those left behind in those countries.

8. To his slight credit, Will busts (rather than promoting) the immigration tradition fallacy.

9. Rhee says "we cannot, I think, make kids suffer for decisions that were made by people other than them. We have to focus on what's right for those kids." Where exactly is her concern for the American kids who'd be harmed by the DREAM Act, a policy she supports? What would she say to one of her fellow citizens who wouldn't be able to go to college (or would have to go to a lesser school) due to what she supports?

10. Rhee says we need to "humanize" the issue, which is already being taken care of by the mainstream media (see PIIPP). She also supports a "path to legal status".

11. Vargas - the former Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle writer who recently revealed that he's an illegal alien - offered little to help their side beyond cheap emotionalism and showed himself to be just a lightweight.

UPDATE: Embedded video now fixed.