Words are slippery things, and perhaps the most slippery words on the planet at the moment are “comprehensive immigration reform.” I say slippery because while Democrats and their media allies have long been in favor of legalizing millions of illegal immigrants, Americans are now supposed to believe that conservatives in general, and tea party types in particular, are ready to hop on the reform bandwagon as well. Yet the devil as they say, is in the details. And the details suggest that the definition of comprehensive immigration is becoming as malleable as it gets, in order to skew survey results that make it appear a majority of Americans want some form of amnesty.

Take a poll released by the Partnership for a New American Economy, Americans for Tax Reform, and the Tea Party Express that ostensibly puts the number of tea-party aligned conservative voters who favor Congress taking action on immigration reform at 71 percent. Or another poll by Fox that also contends 60 percent of Republicans favor "amnesty" or a “pathway to citizenship” for illegals as well.

In the former poll, conservatives give reform a thumbs-up based on criteria that include improved border security measures and a pathway to citizenship, provided illegal aliens pay back taxes and penalties, pass criminal background checks, and go through standard naturalization education like basic English and American civics.

The latter poll asked Americans what comes closest to their views regarding government policy towards illegals. The winner: "Allow illegal immigrants to remain in the country and eventually qualify for U.S. citizenship, but only if they meet certain requirements like paying back taxes, learning English, and passing a background check.“

Regarding the latter poll, the Wall Street Journal, who many Americans many not realize has long favored comprehensive immigration reform, reaches a rather tenuous conclusion as a result. "The immigration views expressed by Renee Ellmers, Jeb Bush, John Boehner and others on the right may make them pariahs in the blogosphere, but it’s hard to argue that these politicians are out of step with rank-and-file Republican voters,” the paper states.

Pariahs in the “blogosphere?” Let me tell you what that little sobriquet, in all its implied contempt really means. It means the overwhelming majority of comments that follow virtually every article you read regarding comprehensive immigration are unambiguously negative. Not somewhat negative, not fifty-fifty negative versus positive, but more reliably and consistently negative than comments for any other issue on which rank-and-file Americans, as opposed to "experts,“ offer their opinions. And it doesn’t matter whether those comments appear after articles at conservative sites, such as the American Spectator, or liberal sites such as Politico.

That is exactly why they must be dismissed with the kind of extreme prejudice that the word "blogosphere," as in "pajama-clad Americans ranting from their parents' basement," or "disgruntled American clinging to God, guns and religion," implies. Thus, like so many other issues where the ruling class and their media allies converge, Americans are forced to ponder a familiar question:

Who are you going to believe, them, or yourself and your "lying” fellow Americans?

I’ll tell you what I believe: I believe you can get any positive results you want on comprehensive immigration reform surveys, provided there are enough qualifiers that accompany the choices. Which begs another highly inconvenient question:

How realistic are those qualifiers?

Let’s begin with improved border security measures. The Secure Fence Act of 2006 called for 700 miles of double-layered fencing. As of a year ago – meaning 7 years after the Act was passed – there were only 355 miles of total fencing, with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responsible for constructing 283 miles of it, of which only 34 miles were double-layered. Much of that laxity was due to the reality that the Act was amended one year later by Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who gave the DHS complete discretion to build, or not to build, a fence as they saw fit. In a 2011 speech on immigration in El Paso, TX, President Obama doubled down, declaring that the fence was "now basically complete.“

Our border with Mexico is approximately 1,900 miles long. 

What about illegal aliens paying back taxes? As the Heritage Foundation reveals, the Senate immigration bill "does not specify how tax authorities are to collect back taxes from illegal immigrants before they are granted legal status if they have not previously filed tax returns.” Even for those illegals who have filed returns, the bill grants the Treasury Secretary “broad authority” to determine the correct back tax liability. 

For those who haven’t filed returns? No instructions are given. This bring up yet another question: do Americans believe more illegal aliens file returns, or work off the books for cash? As Heritage notes, because of the difficulty in assessing how much non-tax compliant illegal aliens owe, the likelihood is high that the Treasury Secretary would simply waive the requirement. They further note that this is because the IRS is too busy dealing with ObamaCare – and targeting potentially tax-exempt conservative groups for extra scrutiny.

What about learning English? We already know the answer to that one. Despite a 1907 law requiring all immigrants to learn English in order to become a citizen, Section 203 of the 1975 Voting Rights Act, and its subsequent amendment in 1992, required ballots to be printed in multiple languages if a Latino, Asian-American, American Indian or Alaskan minority group comprised more than 5 percent of the voting-age population or at least 10,000 citizens in various locals. Those are requirements. Does anyone seriously believe that every leftist stronghold in the nation won’t simply accommodate newly minted citizens who tend to vote Democratic?

Background checks? Last week's revelation that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released a whopping 36,007 convicted criminal aliens awaiting the outcome of their deportation proceedings – including 193 individuals convicted of murder, 426 convicted of sexual assault, 1,075 convicted of aggravated assault, and 303 convicted of kidnapping – should disabuse anyone of the notion that only well-behaved, law-abiding illegals will be allowed to remain in the country. And that’s before Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson releases his “modifications” of the Secure Communities program that allow ICE officials to run the prints of anyone booked for a local or state crime through the federal database. A program pro-immigration groups wish to jettison altogether.

Where does Johnson stand? In January, he told a U.S. Conference of Mayors that illegal aliens have "earned the right to be citizens.“

I could go on, but I’m guessing you get the picture. All of the so-called qualifiers that elicit the positive poll results Democrats, Establishment Republicans, the Chamber of Commerce, Silicon Valley billionaires, immigration activist groups and the mainstream media hang their collective hats on, are completely bogus. Furthermore, anyone stupid enough to believe the same president who has unilaterally and un-Constitutionally re-written ObamaCare, and who has already played it similarly fast and loose with existing immigration law, would faithfully enforce new legislation is utterly delusional. 

And note that until this point I haven’t even bought up the Left’s favorite political tactic: incrementalism. Is there even a scintilla of doubt that any comprehensive immigration bill passed by Congress wouldn’t be immediately attacked as too "stringent,” requiring more “humane” fixes ASAP?

Keeping that reality in mind, let’s revisit the aforementioned qualifications. Security measures? Too “nativist” or “xenophobic.” Paying back taxes, with interest and penalties, no less? An “undue burden” on people “struggling to get by.” Learning English? Another “undue burden,” one that undermines our commitment to “diversity” and “multiculturalism.” Background checks? Too “draconian,” especially with regard to “minor offenses." 

Anyone want to bet what the above survey results would look like if some of these "devilish little details” were included?

And of course, last but not least, my personal favorite, in terms of devilish little details. Twelve million illegals? According to whom? And what about “family reunification” that could double or triple even that total?

Americans are being conned, and despite every effort on both sides of the ideological divide to willfully deceive them, they know it. They know theres’s a vast difference between those who come here legally and those who, along with their contemptible enablers, have the unmitigated gall to demand that we accommodate rampant contempt for the rule of law. The same rule of law that separates this nation from the Third World basket cases the ruling class and their allies apparently wish us to emulate.

That’s the real meaning behind the words “comprehensive immigration reform.” And this is one American proud to stand with his fellow “miscreants” in the blogosphere.

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