Immigration Reform Still Going Nowhere

Rachel Swarns story in today’s NYTimes begins:

Two senior Bush administration officials vowed on Wednesday to work with Congress to ensure passage of immigrationlegislation this year but publicly distanced themselves from proposalsthat would place most illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship.

DHS Secretary Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez support plans to legalize the status of millions of undocumented noncitizens, but do not support putting them on a path to citizenship.

The little rift highlights the fact that there are many possible policy options between criminalizing all undocumented migrants on one hand and providing broad access to a path to citizenship on the other.  Not that any of this matters, since Congress does not seem prepared to find a point around which to coalesce.

-jmc