What Spector said

During the frenzy leading up to the defeat of "comprehensive immigration reform", I came up with a kernel of a compromise that just might save the country. It's a scheme so crazy it just might work. Of course, I didn't form a PAC or even contact my Representative and/or Senators. Come to think of it, I don't think I discussed it with anybody.

So it was with pride (He has MY idea!), anger (HE has my idea!), and suprise (He has my IDEA!), that I found an opinion piece (registration required) by Arlen Spector in the Washington Post this morning. Here's the crux:

We should consider a revised status for those 12 million people. Let them hold the status of those with green cards -- without the automatic path to citizenship that was the core component of critics' argument that reform efforts were really amnesty. Give these people the company of their spouses and minor children and consider other indicators of citizenship short of the right to vote (which was always the dealbreaker).

So the hope is that this would be appealing and workable to the "no amnesty" crowd because it would preclude citizenship. On the other hand, it would bring illegal immigrants "out of the shadows" and remove the fear of deportation. I think the essence of this plan is workable. However, it's unclear to me if the opposing sides could ever reach an accord on the various aspects and details of what would, quite deliberately, be a system of second class [citizens].