Nothing but Noise

The editors of National Review have an editorial up about the President's Border Control speeches.

It is definitely worth the read.

Titled, “A Lot of Noise”, it addresses some of the major ideas in the President's plan.

Here is an excerpt:

"We will not be able to effectively enforce our immigration laws until we create a temporary-worker program."

This was the animating idea of the president's immigration speech on Monday in Tucson. His litany of improvements in border security, and even his acknowledgement of the importance of interior enforcement, were clearly calculated to make his guest-worker-program-cum-amnesty more palatable to conservatives.

The current issue of Time magazine has a revealing quote from "a Republican official close to the White House" about the president's approach to supporters of immigration enforcement: "Bush decided to give these guys their rhetorical pound of flesh. In return, he wants a comprehensive bill, which is what he has always wanted. He's just going to lead with a lot of noise about border security."

We are glad that Bush finally seems to realize how dismayed conservatives are about the chaotic, lawless state of our immigration system, but he will have to do more to convince us that he is offering more than "a lot of noise."

The editorial then goes through the speech (in summary) and points out the problems with the President's notions, including:

Interior repatriation
Catch-and-release
Unmanned aerial vehicles
Verifying legal status

Really, the speech was a lot of noise, but not much substance.

As the NR editors wrote,

The president's belated support for more enforcement inspires little confidence in conservatives who fear a replay of 1986, when millions of illegal aliens were legalized in exchange for hollow promises of future enforcement. If the president wants to persuade Congress and the American people that this time will be different, he must provide actions rather than words, results rather than "noise."