Guy Benson supports mass legalization of illegal aliens (immigration, amnesty, Townhall, HotAir)

The video below features Guy Benson of Townhall, HotAir, and Fox News outlining his immigration position. He admits that he was "hopeful" that the Senate would come up with an immigration bill that was "workable". After it was released, he opposed the Senate bill due to particulars of the bill and because he didn't trust Barack Obama.

Those are valid concerns, but the key feature of the Senate bill or any other variant of comprehensive immigration reform is that it would legalize most of the millions of illegal aliens in the U.S. Benson doesn't oppose that key aspect of the bill. The huge downsides of legalizing millions of illegal aliens have been discussed in great depth here; see the last link as well as posts on the Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and other pages.

Benson also offers a bit of a false choice when he asks the audience which of four possible immigration scenarios they support, ranging from secure the border to the Senate bill. Notably, Benson doesn't mention the attrition plan, under which we'd ramp up immigration enforcement in order to encourage most illegal aliens to return home on their own.

Benson does say that people shouldn't be drummed out of his party or his movement based on their immigration stances, which is something I agree with. However, that doesn't foreclose discrediting those who do support any form of amnesty: don't purge, just show them wrong.

This video is from the same CPAC event in St Louis that featured panelists Helen Krieble, Grover Norquist, and Eric Schmitt. Those three and Benson are on the same basic side of immigration. The event was to feature a Univision reporter as an anchor (she was delayed so Benson took her place for the first part of the event). I haven't reviewed her later appearance, but the chances that all five of them didn't fundamentally agree is slim.