Quote of the morning comes from the incomparable Thomas Sowell (via RealClearPolitics):

How often have we heard that illegal immigrants “take jobs that Americans will not do”? What is missing in this argument is what is crucial in any economic argument: price.

Americans will not take many jobs at their current pay levels — and those pay levels will not rise so long as poverty-stricken immigrants are willing to take those jobs.

If Mexican journalists were flooding into the United States and taking jobs as reporters and editors at half the pay being earned by American reporters and editors, maybe people in the media would understand why the argument about “taking jobs that Americans don’t want” is such nonsense.

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Related: Glenn Reynolds provides a summary of the debate here. He’s wrong that security is not an issue in the border protection debate. I wrote a whole book countering that argument. Homeland security requires effective visa screening, national security profiling, and border control. Nearly five years after 9/11, we have none of those.

To wit (via Reuters):

Four years after the September 11 attacks, investigators were able to easily enter the United States with enough radioactive material to make two so-called dirty bombs, according to a report on a government undercover investigation obtained on Monday.

Two teams made simultaneous entries at the U.S.-Mexican border and the border with Canada carrying radioactive material in their vehicles in December 2005, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in the report on its investigation.

The congressional watchdog agency said the test was designed to examine potential weaknesses related to radiation monitors that have been installed at U.S. border ports of entry, the GAO said.

The monitors worked. But the investigators, posing as employees of a fictitious (sic), still got past the border patrol with fake paperwork authorizing them to transport the material, the report said.

“The CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) inspectors never questioned the authenticity of the investigators’ counterfeit bill of lading or the counterfeit NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) authorizing them to receive, acquire, possess and transfer radioactive sources,” the GAO said in a letter to Sen. Norm Coleman, chairman of a Senate Homeland Security subcommittee.

“We believe the amount of radioactive sources that we were able to transport into the United States during our operation would be sufficient to produce two dirty bombs, which could be used as weapons of mass disruption,” the letter said.

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Human Events says: Tell Waffling Republicans: No Amnesty!

The Senate Judiciary Committee is now working on an immigration reform bill and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R.-Tenn.) has indicated he would like to bring it to the floor before the end of March.

The key question: Will the Senate approve an amnesty for illegal aliens.

The editors of HUMAN EVENTS define amnesty as granting any kind of legal residency status to an illegal alien without first making him return to his home country.

The immigration bill passed by the House in December does not include an amnesty.

Last week, we asked all 55 Republican senators (via their press secretaries): “Will you rule out voting this year for an immigration reform bill that converts illegal immigrants to legal guest workers without making them return to their home countries first?”

Most did not answer our question, but several senators did respond.

Only 7 responded that they would rule out legalizing illegal immigrants. Check back here for updates and contact info for senators who have yet to respond.

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