Talkin' bout immigration

In the comments thread for the previous post, Paul Donnelly (aka the Americanist) adroitly wonders:

So what's the immigration policy we're FOR?

Now, posts like the previous are primarily about demonstrating what a steaming heap of dung we're being served on the issue of immigration from the right. We get to choose there between Bush's "guest worker" proposal that would officially sever the concept of immigration from citizenship -- a radical enough proposal in its own right; and the troglodytes of the Minuteman crowd.

But on the left, we hear ... crickets chirping.

Which is strange, considering that everyone knows that Republicans intend to make immigration a big re-election issue in 2006. Aren't any Democrats getting ready for that?

It's time to talk -- seriously -- about immigration and how to solve the problems surrounding it, particularly illegal immigration, which just as surely negatively affect issues traditionally of concern to the left, particularly labor-market issues.

So I'm setting up this thread to invite discussion here of those issues. The more, the merrier. I have some thoughts of my own, of course, and I hope to gather enough helpful input to produce something actually useful.

Please feel free to chime in.