More on Immigration: Drunken Potato Eating Edition

One reason that I think that we might end up with sensible immigration reform (but probably not, the Senate passed a tolerable bill--which the House will kill in conference and replace with their crazy assed bill) is that there are tens-of-thousands of illegal Irish immigrants. And they're organized. (They can be vocal, in my experience illegal Irish get really pissed when you don't go to medical school--sorry, inside joke).
Since the Irish have given us a couple of presidents, the FDNY, and most of Boston, I'm willing to bet that there's no politically feasible way to use anti-Irish rhetoric the way that politicians get mileage out of anti-Latino rhetoric. There was a rally in Washington for illegal Irish immigrants (see the above link) a few weeks back and Senator's Schumer, McCain, Clinton, and Kennedy attended. They never would have attended a similar rally for Latinos. The Irish are as important an immigrant (more often former-immigrant) voice. Just as important as Latinos in this debate--I hope.
The number of Latinos and Irish are comparable. According to the Census Bureau 34.5 Million Americans claim Irish ancestry and 35.6 Million Americans call themselves "Hispanic." (Warning, that's a PDF.) And that number is only going to grow. You can't criminalize an immigrant group that is becoming increasingly politically powerful (and an already powerful immigrant group) just because the system we have doesn't adequately regulate the otherwise neccessary and good influx of said groups. Or you can, but you'll get your ass kicked at the polls down the road...and we'll have a economic crisis.