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The immigration bill before Congress has some of the most serious consequences for the future of this country. Yet it is not being discussed seriously by most politicians or most of the media. Instead, it is being discussed in a series of glib talking points that insult our intelligence.

How many times have we heard illegal aliens are taking "jobs that Americans won't do?" Just what specifically are those jobs?
Even in occupations where illegals are concentrated, such as agriculture, cleaning, construction and food preparation, the great majority of the work is still being done by people who are not illegal aliens.

The highest concentration of illegals is in agriculture, where they are 24 percent of the people employed. That means three-quarters of the people are not illegal aliens. But when will the glib phrase-mongers stop telling us the illegals are simply taking "jobs Americans won't do?" Another insult to our intelligence is amnesty is not amnesty if you call it something else. The fact that illegals will have to fulfill certain requirements to become American citizens is supposed to mean this is not amnesty.

But let's do what the spinmeisters hope we will never do -- stop and think. Amnesty is overlooking ("forgetting," as in amnesia) the violation of the law committed by those who have crossed our borders illegally.

Yet another insult to our intelligence is saying that, since we cannot find and deport 12 million people, the only choice left is to find some way to make them legal.

There is probably no category of law-breakers -- from counterfeiters to burglars or from jay-walkers to murderers -- who can all be found and arrested. But no one suggests we must therefore make what they have done legal.

The reverse twist on this argument is suddenly taking 12 million people out of the labor force would disrupt the economy. No one has ever said -- or probably even dreamed -- we could suddenly find all 12 million illegal immigrants at once and send them all home immediately. This is another straw-man argument.

The real question is what we do with whatever illegal aliens we do find. Right now, there are various communities around the country where local officials have a policy of forbidding the police from reporting illegal immigrants to federal authorities.

Why are people who are so gung ho for punishing employers so utterly silent about needing to punish government officials who openly and deliberately violate federal laws?

Employers, after all, are not in the business of law enforcement.

If some guy who runs a hardware store or a dry cleaning business hires someone who shows some forged documents, why should the employer be fined for not being able to tell the difference, when government officials who can tell the differenceare not doing anything -- or are even actively obstructing federal laws?

Putting unarmed National Guardsmen on the border is another cosmetic move, a placebo instead of real medicine.

You can put a million people on the border and it will mean nothing if those who are caught are simply turned loose and sent back to try again tomorrow.