It was finally expressed in the simplest way. On the radio this morning, channel surfing, someone made the point that many bloggers have been making all along.

Being in the US illegally is ILLEGAL.

That's the point, isn't it? Isn't the problem Americans have with any sort of "amnesty" bill for illegal aliens the fact that these people didn't bother to obey the laws of our nation in the first place? An excellent point was made that if, as a nation, we begin excusing this illegal behavior, what other illegal behaviors will we also begin to tolerate?

What if all of us who like to drive our vehicles in excess of the speed limit just went ahead and did so and refused to pay the tickets or show up at our court dates? What if we, saying "people are just going to do it anyway", instead sought amnesty for speeders and changes in the traffic law? What would that solve? Same thing any illegal alien amnesty would solve - NOTHING.

And if you think that these people's "civil rights" are being violated, suppose all of the hookers in Washington, DC skipped out on their court dates for a few years and then demanded their business be decriminalized. After all, people are going to do it anyway, and shouldn't a woman have the right to do with her body as she pleases? Doesn't the right to engage in this activity fall into the category of "women's rights"? What if these women, after years of engaging in this illegal activity, suddenly demanded that it be decriminalized, and their court appearances waived?

The bottom line from those of us who are truly conservative is that these people are doing something that is ILLEGAL. Change the law if you like, but those who have been breaking it in its present form must still be dealt with appropriately.

I like Michael Smerconish's idea. Secure the borders first, THEN figure out what to do with the 11 or so million of these people who are here. Any new law must require all those here illegally to go home and apply for legal entry. After that, we can talk about changing the law to make life easier for those wishing to come here and naturalize.

Which brings me to the REAL point of immigration. The purpose of immigration isn't to bring as many people of as many different cultures into our country so that our culture can change; it's to diversify the kind of people who have chosen to embrace our culture. The idea of the "melting pot" is to bring those who want to share their cultural heritage while incorporating our American cultural heritage as their own. In other words, those we should be accepting are the ones who, while continuing to revere the good things in their previous culture, wish to (1) embrace the things in our culture that are inherently superior (freedom and capitalism) to what they had before, (2) become Americans at heart (sharing our common goals and language) and (3) pass those ideals on to their children and grandchildren.

That's the bottom line.

RWR