If Hillary Clinton were to be the Democrat Party candidate for President in 2008, one issue alone could defeat her. No matter who the Republicans run for President, one issue alone will prove an obstacle to victory. That issue is illegal immigration.

In her typically strident fashion, Sen. Clinton told a rally of immigrants on Capitol Hill that she opposed making illegal entry into the United States a felony and that the Republican proposal to round up illegal immigrations for deportation would turn the country into “a police state.” Mind you, they have already broken the law by sneaking into the U.S. or by over-staying their visas. The real problem for both the Democrats and Republicans is that America is now home to an estimated eleven million or more illegal immigrants.

For a nation that is said to be hated by foreigners, an awful lot of them want to come here. Just ask the Immigration and Customs Service, a division of the Department of Homeland Security. Remember why this department was created? It had to do with a number of illegal immigrants who flew commercial jet planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.

The Bush administration has ignored the issue of illegal immigration despite the fact that thousands cross into the United States every day. They mostly come across our southern border, but it is just as easy to come in from the equally vast border we share with Canada. After they arrive, they find work, they apply for a variety of benefits, send their kids to school, use the emergency rooms of hospitals which by law cannot turn them away, and some commit crimes. If they give birth to a child here, it is automatically granted U.S. citizenship.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies that has just issued a 44-page report on “The Connection Between Legal and Illegal Immigration”, as legal immigration levels have risen since 1965, illegal immigration has increased with it. The Center found that “the share of the foreign-born population who are illegal aliens has risen steadily. Where they made up 21% of the foreign-born in 1980 and 25% in 2000, they numbered 28% percent as of 2005.”

Several amnesties have masked the rise in illegal immigration, the most recent being the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. Suffice it to say this whitewash piece of legislation did nothing to reform or control immigration. It legalized three million illegal aliens. They, in turn, became eligible to sponsor additional immigrants, thus contributing says the Center to the ranks of both legal and illegal immigrants. The more you legalize, the more who see the opportunity to enjoy the same instant process.

As commentator Michelle Malkin points out, this is a slap in the face to every naturalized American who patiently went through the process to become a citizen. The entire immigration system is broken and, to make matters infinitely worse, Chairman Arlen Spector (R-PA) of the Senate Judiciary Committee has begun debate on a proposal that would create a “Gold Card” program to grant amnesty to illegal aliens who broke the law to get here before January 4, 2004.

So we have the Democrats criticizing efforts to make illegal entry a felony offense with Sen. Richard Durban (D-IL) saying it would make the job of law enforcement seeking illegal aliens more difficult. Isn’t that the job of law enforcement, finding criminals? And isn’t it the job of Immigration and Customs Services to deport illegal aliens?

Meanwhile, on the other site of the political aisle, you have Republicans saying that we should expect the ICS department to conduct background checks on those who want the Gold Card visa.. The only problem with that is that the Government Accountability Office has issued a report that says ICS has no grasp whatever on the problem of immigration fraud, doesn’t do enough to deter it, and won’t have any kind of a working fraud-management system in place until 2011. The ICS can barely cope with those seeking naturalization.

Little wonder that a significant portion of the Mexican population continues to move to the United States without bothering to inquire about the naturalization. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, Mexico accounted for 30% of the foreign-born in 2000 and more than half of the Mexicans known to be living in the U.S. were here illegally.

Granting yet another amnesty, no matter how you dress it up or what you call it, brings us full circle back to the fact that amnesties simply invite more illegal aliens.

So-called “undocumented workers”, another way of saying “illegal aliens”, are the focus of both Democrats and Republicans trying to figure out a way to put them on a fast track to citizenship. A lot of Americans don’t like this idea and a lot of them vote!

This is happening when the United States presumably has a homeland security problem in the form of porous borders, a laughable deportation program, and virtually no system in place to track anyone who enters the U.S., whether as a tourist, a student, a businessman, or to pick crops.

The 2008 national elections are going to revolve around the issue of illegal immigration and, at this point, neither party has a sensible solution other than to make it a very good choice to come here any that way you can.

A popular guest on radio and television, Caruba is available to address groups on the topics about which he writes, including environmentalism, energy, education, national security and sovereignty, property rights, and Islam. He can be reached at: