President George Bush just completed a speech on immigration, and he finally managed to say something convincing and worthwhile. In fact, he said a lot of things convincingly: he’ll stop illegal immigration; build physical barriers where needed; implement rapid deportation of all illegals we catch; not grant amnesty to illegal immigrants; require immigrants to abide by our laws and speak our English language; and add manpower, funding, and technology to the border patrol.
Some of these proposals sound like complete reversals of previous positions (e.g: he used to favor amnesty and citizenship for illegal immigrants already working here), which make them suspect. Talk is cheap, after all. And possibly even cheaper when it emanates from a besieged southwestern border state, as it did today. Nevertheless, in spite of myself, I felt a twinge of optimism and will be watching with great interest to see if the president delivers on today’s promises.