Linda Chavez has just written a column blaming immigration law for Bernard Kerik's troubles—and hers [The nanny problem takes down another nominee, December 16, 2004]:

"If there is an illegal alien in your past, forget about serving your country in any high-level position."

Her solution seems to involve unconditional surrender, i.e. the Bush plan:

"The only solution is to make it easier—not harder—for immigrants who want to work to come here legally. The president's much-maligned guest worker proposal is a step in the right direction. But a solution still has to be found for dealing with those illegal aliens already here. It makes no sense to kick them out in order to bring in millions of different people to fill their jobs. A one-time fine of both illegal aliens and the employers who knowingly hire them, along with the chance for undocumented workers to legalize their status if they have not broken other laws, would seem the proper punishment. Then maybe we could quit disqualifying otherwise good candidates from serving the nation." 

Actually, kicking out illegal aliens still makes sense to me. The "millions of different people" replacing them might not be illiterates from Chiapas, but from countries where they read, write, and speak English.

And cheap labor is not a civil right.

You can read what we said about her abortive nomination as Secretary of Labor, here: Lovely Linda, by Scott McConnell, with links to the other four [!] articles on that kerfuffle. And you can read Linda Chavez Cleans Up With Cheap Labor, by yours truly.