7:45am 5/18 updated:

Mitt Romney:

“I strongly oppose today’s bill going through the Senate. It is the wrong approach. Any legislation that allows illegal immigrants to stay in the country indefinitely, as the new ‘Z-Visa’ does, is a form of amnesty. That is unfair to the millions of people who have applied to legally immigrate to the U.S.”

My warning back in March about the so-called touchback provision–when no one was paying attention–still stands:

The amnesty-peddlers’ game of “touchback”
By Michelle Malkin · March 26, 2007 08:17 AM

Chris Kelly at Lonewacko has been doing the job no one else will do: doggedly analyzing and tracking illegal alien amnesty legislation coming down the pike.

You will hear, for example, that the amnesty bills require illegal aliens to return to their home country before being granted “temporary” guest worker status.

The requirement, dubbed the “touchback provision,” is a sham. Just like most every other attempt at appearing tough on immigration enforcement has been under the Bush administration. Kelly highlights this description of the touchback game:

Lawmakers were vague about exactly how long they would have to stay outside the country under what is being called the touchback provision. But staff members said they could stay as little as one day.

In case you were still under the impression that DHS would stop this open-borders nightmare, DHS chief Michael Chertoff gives it two thumbs up.

From a retired Border Patrol agent:

As a retired Border Patrol Agent (26yrs.), I resent the attitude and actions of the Senate and House with respect to aliens in the USA. With IRCA in 1986, all things pertaining to illegal aliens in the USA were going to be answered. We were going to make employers responsible. Let me tell you: If there was ever a US Attorney scandal, it was their refusal to prosecute the violators. It only took about 1 year for every one concerned [to realize] that it was just hot air from Washington.

Bill West, high-ranking retired INS official, sums up many of the same points I’ve made repeatedly over the last several years to deaf ears:

Last year it appeared we dodged the bullet when proposed immigration reforms died on “The Hill.” Unfortunately, the mad rush to “do something” has taken over the common sense of too many of our political leaders and we may actually see some form of immigration reform become law in the near future. Most unfortunately, if this “reform” includes the proposed legalization and guest worker provisions currently being touted, whatever euphoria the politicos and the media may experience won’t last long because nothing passed in that context will work in the real world.

Redstate: “There is no bill.”

9:02pm Eastern update. Sen. Jon Kyl on Hannity and Colmes: “I think the text will be done by tomorrow and there will be plenty of time to read it…I fought very hard for what I believe…I’m confident that the provisions I fought for will make it a much better bill…This is a parole, not an amnesty.”

Reader John responds: “If this is a parole, will anyone go to jail for not following the law or will this be another non-enforced law?”

The question answers itself.

Another reader e-mails: “Don’t you normally have to go to jail BEFORE you get parole?”

George Borjas boils it down: “No bill is better than this bill.”

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