Immigration reform

The latest proposal out of Washington has certainly generated a lot of conversation! This supposedly bipartisan plan is by all appearances being fast-tracked through Congress without going through the normal committee hearing process.

Without even going into the details of the plan, I have to ask some questions:

1. If this is such a great plan, why wouldn't the President welcome the Committee process as a chance to get the wonderful details of it into the public eye? Instead, it is a mystery plan that was originally supposed to be voted on without having even been printed up for any sort of study. It seems to me that there were a lot of paranoid people trying to sneak something past us. Now where have we seen that before? Oh yeah - the onerous, so-called "PATRIOT Act". Guess they have a reason to be paranoid, ehh?
   
2. Why does the President say "And my answer to the skeptics is: Give us a chance to fix the problems in a comprehensive way that enforces our border and treats people with decency and respect," the president said. "Give us a chance to fix this problem. Don't try to kill this bill before it gets moving." Why does he think he has any credibility left at all, especially with real conservatives who got him elected but whom he has defecated on at almost every turn?
3. How can he not realize that a solid majority of Americans (over 60 percent, if the polls are to be believed) oppose any sort of amnesty for illegals? I'm not saying that any President should be poll driven, but when poll after poll after poll from all kinds of different sources say the same thing, isn't that a pretty good indicator of what the citizens want?
4. How is it the President can't seem to understand that unless the border is secured and defended, all his other plans are worthless? The flow will increase, not decrease.
5. Oh, by the way - how many miles of that border fence Congress appropriated for and the President signed off on a couple years ago have actually been constructed? Oops, there's that credibility thing again.

This President is not serious about securing the nation. He does a lot of posturing, some speechifying, but it seems that all he is focused on is Iraq. While that is absolutely important, it isn't the only game in town and constitutionally "the common defence" is one of his most important responsibilities, so that we the people might "secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity".