Rubio can fix immigration law, but not the government that enforces it

Senator Marco Rubio has been game for discussing immigration reform with high-profile, skeptical conservative interviewers, including Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin.  The question he has the most trouble answering is the one he really can’t answer, because it’s not his fault: How are we supposed to trust the government that couldn’t handle immigration law over the past 40 years to manage an even more complex – and, ostensibly, tougher – set of immigration laws today?  We’re talking about provisional amnesty for 12 million illegals today because it’s supposedly impossible for the government to enforce the existing legal regime.  We are told there’s just no way to find all these people, check their backgrounds, and deport them.  But we will be able to compute their back taxes, and keep them out of titanic fraud-riddled programs like food stamps and ObamaCare?

You can’t listen to Rubio and doubt his sincerity.  He makes some solid arguments about the need to deal with the illegal immigrant problem in a manner consistent with political reality and American humanitarianism.  And he completely understands the importance of coupling this with measures that will prevent another illegal alien crisis from percolating in five or ten years.  It’s the sincerity of his colleagues – and the competence of the vast, inept system that will be charged with implementing their legislation – that I doubt.