IMO Romney pushing “immigration reform,” after the various monsters that have gone by that name, is, from a conservative point of view, tone deaf.
And after a candidate flips, or appears to flip, too many times on an issue that voters really care about, he is likely to lose their trust.
It should be known that I am not as die-hard an “anti-immigrant” as many on this board are, or even as die-hard an “anti-illegal-immigrant”. I don’t want people in this country illegally, but I don’t think they are evil or should be shot on sight.
And I even think we need to reform our guest worker program, both to make sure guest workers leave when they are done, but also to make it easier for qualified non-citizens to get into the program and to target areas where we really need workers.
A good guest-worker program would lower the illegal immigrant rate, and we could adjust the numbers up or down as needed, for example this year we would cut the program off much lower as we have high unemployment, and could raise it later.
I have no doubt that a Romney plan wouldn’t be exactly what I want. And I know that no plan that includes anything other than a border fence and the electric chair would suit some people here.
But I see no reason for us to stop being a nation of immigrants, and I think we can’t ignore that we spent 20 years since 1986 essentially telling people to come in illegally and it would be OK.