The editorial fails to deal with the fundamental issue: immigration as such. Instead it looks narrowly at this legislation, utters a few glittering generalizations about the welfare of pathetic immigrants, and ignores many of the bill's inevitable implications. -- The basics of immigration begin with this apolitical video, which everyone, hard-line conservative or raging liberal, should see: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5871651411393887069 Once this information is grasped, the NYT editorial looks puny indeed. -- "Know-nothing" IS an insult; those people were bigots and conspiracist lunatics. The editorial writer intended to insult his despised targets. -- Trouble ahead: note that recent polls tell us that Congress, elected to undo the mistakes of the GOP, now has approval ratings that hover just above and just below Bush's approval rating. It is a fact that the mass of the voters are disgusted with both the fumbling, stumbling White House and the madcap Congress. Failed immigration policy is a major reason. So? Given this misbegotten bill, the future looks interesting for all politicians who don't start talking sensibly, rather than mindlessly repeating rhetoric such as the text of this editorial. For example, the NYT editorial ignores the fact that the bill does nothing effective to discourage illegal immigration. Fact: the benefits of remaining illegal are considerable; many will see them as preferable to the benefits of legal status, even if becoming properly documented were just a matter of signing one's name. That is seldom mentioned and almost never understood. -- A good editorial would have gone to the base of the matter (as should the USA's immigration law). It would have begun with the assumption that everything in immigration policy must be based on what should be done for the benefit of the USA, not on how we can help poor people in other nations. This editorial is accordingly off target. Further, it implies that somehow the new law would have been acceptable if a few major changes had been made...changes that are not only much less significant than the NYT realizes, but ultimately worthless or even negative if we wish to set and follow a rational immigration policy. -- The NYT is declining, and this editorial is just one of many reasons why. The immigration issue is too big and profound for the editorial writer, who wrings his hands over the distress of people who want to live in the USA. What matters first and last is what is good for the nation (look at the video mentioned above). Why the editorial writer does not begin with that obvious premise is open to debate.