The last thing we need...

... is just another interest group playing grievance identity politics (or maybe that should be "identity grievance politics"), and I'm with Glenn when I note that rallies of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, waving foreign flags and making demands on American voters, are more likely to cause a backlash than engender sympathy.

I also do not support President Bush's proposal on a guest worker visa program, primarily because we have recently seen the results of "guest worker" programs in Europe.  The primary goal of immigration policy should be to assimilate those who are here legally.  Granting people temporary worker visas does the opposite, leaving people in a sort of situational limbo while at the same time opening the doors to all kinds of abuse, such as the likelihood that many will have "anchor babies" while here.  And then what?  (Perhaps we will start to see a stricter interpretation of the 14th Amendment.)

The nub of the problem, of course, is that we have fallen into a cycle of rewarding those who break the rules while punishing those who attempt to play by the rules.  That needs to change.  It would be great if legal immigration were easier for those who are willing to come and work (tightening welfare restrictions on immigrants for a certain number of years after entry would be one way of making certain of this), and  our naturalization process put more emphasis on assimilation. 

Right now, though, everything is ass-backwards, and the bureaucracy we have in place simply isn't competent to handle the issue in a way that makes sense.  (Whenever I deal with BCIS, I am reminded of what Ed Harris said in Appollo 13, "Tell me this isn't a government program.")

MORE:  Michelle Malkin is on a roll.  Not sure I agree with everything she writes, here, but her historical points are spot on.