Now that health care...

...and financial regulatory reform have been passed, President Obama is expected to turn his attention to three other issues he campaigned on: energy, education and immigration reform.

In a piece today, "Immigrants -- Good or Bad?," John Stossel writes (my emphasis):

I sat down with Heather MacDonald of the conservative Manhattan Institute, author of "The Immigration Solution," and Jason Riley of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board, author of "Let Them In." I respect them both. But they radically disagree on immigration policy.

"The case for open borders is a case for letting the law of supply and demand, the free market, determine the level of immigration," Riley said. "Right now, that determination is being made by politicians and public policy makers. ... And like all exercises in Soviet-style central planning, it's been a complete disaster. We have thriving markets in document fraud ... and 12 million-plus illegal aliens. ... (W)e would do better to move to a system that allowed the free market to determine the level of immigration. And that's the case for open borders." Riley proposes a guest-worker program. "That is the way to reduce illegal immigration."

Riley proposes a guest-worker program. Why is that? Any time an editor of the Wall Street Journal supports something, you have to ask yourself, what's his motivation?

With a guest-worker program, corporations would get access to cheap labor that couldn't vote or influence public policy in any way. They would probably find it harder to organize into unions and therefore be more susceptible to unsafe working conditions. And since they wouldn't be on a path to citizenship, guest workers wouldn't be eligible for Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid.

Hmmm. George Bush was a big supporter of immigration. I think I now know why.