John McCain's "Banana" Republic

John McCain may call it a "banana," but the rest of us know exactly what he and Sen. Kennedy are shoving down our throats: Amnesty.

Republican Sen. Jon Kyl insists that "This is a parole, not an amnesty," but paroled bank robbers don't get to keep the money. Paroled shoplifters have to give back the jewelry.

Based on what we know now, the McCain/Kennedy deal is a great deal for illegal immigrants and a lousy deal for everyone else.

Legal immigrants are immediately declared suckers. Any benefit they got from going through the hassles of obeying the law are gone.

Blue collar workers who were losing jobs yesterday to illegals still won't have a shot at those jobs because the immigration criminal who stole it gets to keep it.

Low-skill workers whose wages have suffered will still be in a glutted labor market, working harder and earning less.

And border guards will be screwed because every amnesty offer--or even a rumor of one--inspires yet another wave of illegal immigration.

Oh, and don't forget the other people screwed by this deal: the Americans who will die one day when the Islamist whackjob being granted amnesty uses his new privileges to carry out his attack one day in the future. Somewhere out there is a "Yugoslavian roofer of Albanian ethnicity" whose life in the US is about to get easier.

Sen. McCain says I'm wrong. Sen. McCain says this plan doesn't reward immigration criminals. OK, fine. Here's a simple test.

Right now, a former employee of my father's, a Romanian electronics technician named Eugen, is sitting in Canada waiting to come back to the US. He had a great job and was very happy here, but his visa expired and he did the right thing and left, as the law required. It's been two years and he's heard nothing about when he can return.

Right now, there's an illegal immigrant working in my father's town, right down the street. He came to the US a few years before Eugen, he's still here, and he's still working. While Eugen is washing dishes in Canada just to get by, the illegal immigrant is working a good job, evading his taxes and--best of all--living and enjoying life in the US of A.

If the McCain/Kennedy amnesty becomes law, which of these two men would you rather be?

Debate's over.