Deportation is possible?

People have asked me: "if you're against amnesty, what would you do with all the illegals in this country? You can't deport them all". Well, Leslie Stahl asked CNN's Lou Dobbs the same thing, and apparently he thinks you can: "You want to bet? because this is the United States. I think this country can do anything it sets its mind to."

The statement should not be so surprising. Obviously, you could deport them all. If people got into the US, they could certainly go out. But deporting everyone would require a large law-enforcement and military commitment, as well as more political courage than Washington could likely muster in the face of the inevitable radical protests and unfavorable media coverage. I've got a better idea. Announce publicly that all illegals have an 18 month grace period to leave the country, after which time they would risk imprisonment in a large-scale crackdown. Then during the grace period, set up a large-scale operation to assist illegals in returning to their home countries, with local offices giving travel assistance, loans, legal information, etc. It's certainly a far more generous arrangement than any other nation is likely to provide to US citizens. Certainly the economy would be affected. But so what? We need to get control of our borders again. If we know how many people are actually here, then maybe we can figure out how many immigrants we really need every year and start from there, instead of relying on this shameful shadow labor market.