Overall a good, reasonable approach to the illegal immigration problem was outlined by the president tonight. We would quibble with a few aspects of it, but most of it was on the mark.

The "guest worker program" is in essence an extension of temporary work visas, which have been used for many years in this country. It's arguable whether it's a good idea to grant temporary work visas to larger numbers of unskilled and semi-skilled workers (we tend to lean against it) but it is not some radical sellout of American ideals to simply raise the number of visas granted.

The president did trot out the "we must have comprehensive reform" canard, but he did focus most of the speech on beefing up enforcement of the border. As we've said before, we don't need comprehensive reform. We'd rather see an increase in border enforcement first, and then have the discussion later about expansion of temporary work visas, how to deal with the illegals who have been here for years, etc., perhaps in a couple of years.

Many conservatives are adamant that anything less than deportation equals amnesty, but that is not the case. Amnesty means legalization without penalty. If there is a requrement to pay a substantial fine and back taxes, that is not amnesty. At the very least this should be a point on which reasonable people can differ.

Finally, the only thing that really matters is concrete action that increases border security and substantially diminishes the flow of illegal aliens across the border. The president spoke the right words, now those words must be followed up by real actions and real results.

Others:
Hot Air has the video highlight reel (or lowlight reel, as opinions vary)
The Washington Post has the transcript and some Mexican reaction