National Review not down with immigration reform proposals

A few proposals on immigration reform are currently being batted around Washington. It's an issue everyone agrees is difficult but necessary to address.

Rush Limbaugh has sided with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and the bipartisan group of eight senators who laid out their principles for reform Monday. The conservative National Review, which just hosted a summit over the weekend on the future of the GOP, sides with... no one

The editors write:

Each of the proposals contains an amnesty for the dozen million or so illegals already in the country, and none of them contains adequate security provisions. Panicked Republicans are looking for a grand bargain, but they are wrong on both the politics and the policy. Piecemeal reform emphasizing empirical security benchmarks is a far better option. ...

Republican immigration reformers with an eye to political reality should begin by appreciating that Latinos are a Democratic constituency. ...

And, if we are to take Hispanics at their word, conservative attitudes toward illegal immigration are a minor reason for their voting preferences. While many are in business for themselves, they express hostile attitudes toward free enterprise in polls. They are disproportionately low-income and disproportionately likely to receive some form of government support. More than half of Hispanic births are out of wedlock. Take away the Spanish surname and Latino voters look a great deal like many other Democratic constituencies.

Read the full editorial here.