Rand Paul: 'we aren't going to deport' 11 Million Illegal Immigrants

The junior senator from Kentucky and early candidate for the GOP's 2016 presidential nomination is unveiling his immigration plan today at a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The Associated Press has a preview:

He says his party must adopt a new face toward Hispanics and says conservatives must be part of it.

"Immigration reform will not occur until conservative Republicans, like myself, become part of the solution. I am here today to begin that conversation," Paul says.

"Let's start that conversation by acknowledging we aren't going to deport" the millions already here, he says.

In the first installment of his new weekly column in the Washington Times, Sen. Paul fleshes out some details:

Under my plan for comprehensive reform the US would begin with prioritizing Visas for immigrants with advanced degrees, the so-called STEM Visas and an immediate expansion of the work Visa program. These reforms would happen immediately.

But, as a matter of both national security and immigration policy, it is absolutely essential that we both secure our border and modernize our visa system so we know who comes and who goes on travel, student and other temporary visas. And it is vital all other reforms be conditioned on this goal being met.Only after wrestling down the jackalope of border security (at least to the satisfaction of Congress), would Paul begin normalizing unauthorized immigrants (by giving them temporary visas, and putting them in a long line) at the rate of 2 million per year.

Brian Doherty discussed Rand Paul's evolving views on immigration in May 2011 and November 2012.

We'll have other critiques of Paul's new plan later; my brief take is that it illustrates the folly of the whole "comprehensive" approach: When you have to cram every policy concern and cultural anxiety into a single unholy enchilada of "reform," you're bound to encounter stuff you can't swallow. For me, that includes the types of surveillance-state bells and whistles necessary to track each and every human entering the country (and that includes us, kemosabe). When you have a prohibition problem, you might want to first look to which ridiculous laws need to be relaxed, not tightened.