"Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has unveiled the Obama administration's plan to reform immigration. Key among the proposals are rules that would allow the current undocumented population to stay in the United States, provided they take a number of steps like learning English and paying back taxes, according to published reports. "The hope is that when we get into the first part of 2010, that we will see legislation begin to move," Napolitano said, according to The Los Angeles Times." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

There are many aspects of this subject that are extremely tough. ...not just to discuss, but to enforce -- and too few people really can wrap their heads all the way around it. I have a problem with *part* of the language issue, for example. My dad is 1st gen American. His dad learned enough English to do his job (we're talking a century or so ago), and did his job faithfully -- paid his taxes, made his kids go to school in the US and learn English (even though Spanish was the primary language in the home. My grandmother never did learn to speak English, other than "Hello, how are you?" -- by the logic of this proposal, that would not be good enough -- and yet, she gave birth to 6 1st gen Americans who are just as US-loving as any of us, speak the language, some of whom have served in the military (one of dad's cousins died in Korea)... Further, while I understand the point of learning the language for *business* and functional communication, there is more to the necessity of economic growth from across our southern border that is completely disregarded in the whole "ship em all out & build a fence" mentality. Yes, I agree, if someone is here illegally, then they need to go (the operative word being "illegal") -- but even with *that*, the subject gets exquisitely complex and very quickly. There is no easy fix, and it has to do with laws that predate many of our lives. /blither. - Prosey BUTTONS!

To what level of fluency, though? Too many people expect immigrants to speak with native fluency, and that is unrealistic. - Prosey BUTTONS!

It sounds like about as humane of a solution as is likely to be implemented in the current political climate. Including "learning English" among the conditions seems like a bow to culture war nonsense, but I guess it depends on how it's implemented and how high of a level they require. ... I hope any immigration bill will repeal the border wall law's anti-environment and anti-labor provisions. - John (bird whisperer)