Wow. Britain gets it right on immigration.

According to this Washington Times story, Britain is reportedly changing their immigration laws to require that immigrants to that country learn and demonstrate proficiency in English before they are allowed into the country. This is proof that whatever other failings Britain might have, a plethora of American Democrat liberals isn't one of them. Here, the only litmus test that our Dems want is the apparent willingness of an immigrant to show up on election day with their family members and cast ballots for Democrat candidates even if they aren't allowed by law to vote. (Anyone remember failed California congressional candidate Francine Busby telling illegal aliens that they don't need papers to vote or work on her campaign?)

Britain's current immigration set-up divides potential immigrants into three classes--highly-skilled workers, skilled workers, and unskilled workers. In Britain, the first two are eligible for permanent residency and eventually citizenship while the third class--the unskilled workers--are not.

I never thought that I'd say this, but I think that we need to follow Great Britain's lead, at least in this area. America can always use more skilled workers--scientists, doctors, and other degreed professionals or trained technical workers. We need to work on making it easier for them to immigrate and bring their skills and abilities to our country. At the same time, we need to set up a system under which unskilled laborers can come and take jobs in fields where workers are in high demand, but we need to do it in a manner that identifies them up front and allows them here for a set time period, requiring them to leave at the end of the time or in the event that they either stop working or commit ANY crime. We also need to ensure that citizenship rights are reserved for those that we really desire here--educated professionals who will contribute to America--and not uneducated people who do not know or want to learn our language and who most likely will only become a burden on our hospitals, schools, public assistance programs and jails.

And as I recall, Britain also does not grant automatic citizenship benefits to children of illegal aliens born in their country. So that's two for the Brits against none for the current Administration, both Democrats and Republicans.