The Republican presidential candidates' debates over immigration have been marked by an obsessive focus on third- and fourth-order questions: What tuition rate should state colleges charge illegal-immigrant students?(The Week)(Brief article)

The Republican presidential candidates' debates over immigration have been marked by an obsessive focus on third- and fourth-order questions: What tuition rate should state colleges charge illegal-immigrant students? Is it fair to call McCain's proposal an "amnesty"? (He once used the word himself, before he decided it was a slander.) McCain now claims to "get it"--to understand that Washington must prove it can enforce the law before the public will allow it to grant legal status to illegal immigrants or to invite new "guest workers" here. What he truly "gets" is the need for better PR. He would make amnesty wait until border-state governors certify that the border is secure. But McCain knows that many illegals come here legally and overstay their visas. We would thus be legalizing our illegal population while adding new illegals to await the next ...