The GOP’s immigration nonsense

Washington Post Opinions
By Editorial, Published: September 11

Among the other major Republican candidates, there wasn’t much more insight or logic on offer. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota ducked two straight questions on what to do about the 11 million. Former senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania said that he loved immigrants — his father and grandfather, to name two — but that any discussion of the 11 million undocumented ones should come later.
WHEN QUIZZED on the problem of illegal immigration at their debate the other night, the Republican presidential hopefuls were by turns vague, evasive, confused, contradictory and — in the notable case of Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who opposes a border fence because it might prevent law-abiding Americans from withdrawing their savings and fleeing to Mexico in a crisis — harebrained.

If a majority of the GOP aspirants agreed on anything, it was that nothing meaningful can be done about the nation’s dysfunctional immigration system and the presence of 11 million undocumented immigrants until the southern border is “secure.â€