Secure the Border First

I basically started out agreeing with the WSJ on this one, but I can't ignore the illegalities on immigration in light of our national security. We need to know who is in our country. We need to secure our borders. And we can't expect communities on the border to be continuously inundated with illegal trafficking and the crime that can result.

We also can't be a country where we demand photo IDs at airports but not at the voting booth, and we shouldn't be issuing drivers' licenses to people in this country illegally. Period. Otherwise we become a nation of scofflaws, where the people whose civil liberties are being violated are those who obey the law. Already we have sanctuary cities where if you are illegally here, you are given a pass---note Minneapolis, which didn't participate in shutting down an illegal prostitution ring because many of the prostitutes were here illegally and it might violate their civil rights. This is nuts!! These women are being taken advantage of and the Minneapolis police turn a blind eye. This exchange nails it, Mark Steyn again, who also mentions national security concerns, and summarizes:

STEYN: I think the better plan is to do what other countries do and have an efficient system of legal immigration, coupled with border enforcement. And, again, I know, I cross the northern border all the time. It's basically a haphazard, arbitrary, semi-uninformed border.

COLMES: And what do you want to do about the people already here?

STEYN: I think the people who are already here, you basically seal the borders, and then...

COLMES: Good luck.

STEYN: ... effectively you deal with the people who are here...

WILLIAMS: Look, Mark doesn't know what to say to you, Alan, and so this is what you get. You get nothing. He has no plan, no rational way to deal with this. And, of course, when you look at other countries around the world, what do you see? There's no country like America. We're America because we will take people. We take talent, people who want to work hard, who want to raise their kids and educate them.

STEYN: No, no, you don't. The people who are talented...

WILLIAMS: That's the joy of America.

STEYN: ... and want to work hard are all sitting in their home countries with their visa applications backed up five years.

WILLIAMS: Come on.

HANNITY: Juan, it's simple. Secure the border. We support immigration, legal immigration.

Secure the border, then we'll talk.

UPDATE: Here's Steyn's column:

There's never been a better time for Mullah Omar to apply for U.S. residency.

Remember the 1986 amnesty? Mahmoud abu Halima applied for it and went on to bomb the World Trade Center seven years later. His colleague, Mohammad Salameh, was rejected but carried on living here anyway. John Lee Malvo was detained and released by U.S. immigration in breach of its own procedures and re-emerged as the Washington sniper.