Republicans in Washington who are embracing the Bush-Kennedy amnesty will tell you the package is tough on enforcement because the millions of illegal aliens who are here now will be deported later if they fail to meet the requirements of their so-called “Z visas.”

Here is how the clueless Republican National Committee is selling it:

No Amnesty For Illegal Immigrants: Illegal immigrants who come out of the shadows will be given probationary status. Once the border security and enforcement benchmarks are met, they must pass a background check, remain employed, maintain a clean criminal record, pay a $1,000 fine, and receive a counterfeit-proof biometric card to apply for a work visa or “Z visa.” Some years later, these Z visa holders will be eligible to apply for a green card, but only after paying an additional $4,000 fine; completing accelerated English requirements; getting in line while the current backlog clears; returning to their home country to file their green card application; and demonstrating merit under the merit-based system.

Those who refuse to return home, comply with the visa provisions, or who remain here illegally and don’t apply, supposedly would be deported. Later. Department of Homeland Security chief and Ted Kennedy cheerleader Michael Chertoff regurgitated the same talking points at a press conference earlier today. Open-borders Republicans in the Senate are committing them to memory pronto.

Does this empty promise of the amnesty/deportation trade-off sound familiar? Why, yes, yes it does. Let me boil it down to fundamentals: Bush-Kennedy amnesty is the J. Wellington Wimpy plan:

“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”

Amnesty is the hamburger. Enforcement is the payment that will never come. I’ve reported this reality over and over and over and over and over again. All the leaked memos and graphs and analysis in the world, however, cannot sum up the deportation/enforcement/border security sham–and the mess at DHS–more clearly than the reality expressed by an illegal alien quoted by the Associated Press today:

“If I get deported and need to cross the border again, that’s not a problem,” he said.

It was true in 1986. It’s as true as ever in 2007. Wimpy will get his amnesty burgers and the Beltway fools who keep deluding themselves about the false promise of immigration enforcement will be left empty-handed. Again.