What's behind the curious battles that Bush picks?

Dallas Morning News | Mark Davis:

“My immigration plan is at least a four-liner:

1. Secure the borders, with a wall if necessary.
2. Deport the illegals we find, swiftly and without apology.
3. Punish businesses that knowingly hire them.
4. Formulate a tamper-proof ID to end the workplace kabuki dance that got us into this mess in the first place.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

Mark Davis' plan is deceptively simple and, in the end, wanting.

1. Millions of the illegal aliens in this country did not cross the border illegally. They entered legally and overstayed the duration of their entry permit. Even a perfect fence or wall will do nothing to prevent this from continuing.
2. With 12 million illegal aliens already here, it would take a massive police roundup to make a dent in the problem. Doing so would inevitably ensnare legal residents and US citizens, too, who would be burdened with long, expensive legal processes to obtain justice. Even when such dragnets capture illegals, the resulting family disruptions, where, say, father is illegal but children are American citizens, will impose a huge human cost. Americans' perception of themselves as not only a law-abiding, but a decent society as well, will suffer, no matter how hard a heart Mr Davis' himself may possess.
3. Mr Davis' plan would deputize every hiring manager in the United States into an immigration official. Get it wrong and go to jail. So much safer to just not hire anyone with a Spanish surname, legal or not.
4. A national ID card, not just for immigrants and visitors, but for all citizens, is absolutely essential for Mr Davis' other suggestions. Traditionally, it's been the advocates of civil liberties on both the right and left who have opposed such Big Brother schemes. The potential for abuse is huge.

Note how Mr Davis himself is personally immune from most of the obvious unintended consequences of his plan. Not entirely a coincidence, I think.

In the end, Mr Davis' plan is wanting because it fails to recognize the basic economics underlying the problem. There are jobs needing to be done. There are workers willing to do them. Supply and demand are separated by an arbitrary line in the sand on the southern border of the United States. Mr Davis concentrates on creating more and more elaborate and harsh schemes to keep supply and demand out of balance. History is filled with failures where people have used government to interfere with the marketplace. Mr Davis' suggestions would have no better fate.