Scrutinizing the Immigration Bill

My Creators Syndicate column this week is on immigration. I tend to support the approach taken in the compromise bill hammered out by Jon Kyl and Edward Kennedy, which in many ways should be more appealing to conservatives than the bill the Republican-majority Senate passed a year ago next week.

The details are important, however, and deserve careful scrutiny, as John Fund argues in OpinionJournal. Blogger Dafydd ab Hugh presents this description of the bill, drawn from a variety of sources. Blogger NZ Bear does us the service of providing a searchable text (why can't the Library of Congress's website do this?). Blogger, radio talk show host, and law professor Hugh Hewitt took the trouble this weekend to read the whole bill, and here is his commentary. He winningly admits that some provisions baffle him. Overall, his take is negative, but he points out ways in which the bill could be improved.

This morning the Washington Times's lead story starts, "Fewer than 20 senators are publicly committed to supporting the immigration deal that hits the floor of the Senate today while nearly 40 are already opposed or have serious concerns." The "serious concerns" folks could, of course, end up on either side. Most conservative bloggers and talk radio hosts are in full cry against this proposal, charging that it's amnesty. Latino advocacy groups are in full cry because it moves away from family reunification toward high-skills immigration. If either side is successful in amending the bill in some serious way, support will fall on the other side. It will be interesting to watch what happens.