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A pragmatic approach to illegal immigration

By Greg James
Special to The Times


Sometimes you hear a discussion or debate in which the participants seem to be getting nowhere, don't understand the subject and can't see the obvious. A prime example of this is the illegal-immigration controversy, and the folks making lots of noise are on conservative talk radio.

The conversations on the subject usually revolve around two main themes: The president has sold out his conservative base, and he is ignoring national security by allowing illegal aliens to swarm over the border. Tune in to any of the far-right talk shows, and you can hear variations on these two themes just about any day of the week.

About the only thing they're ever right about on this contentious subject is that if the U.S. government wanted to do something about illegal immigration, it could.

The truth, of course, is that the government doesn't want to do anything about it â€â€