News

For the moment, I have to say that I was relieved when the President got through his long State of the Union section on immigration.

There had been so much talk about the possibility of a big new announcement and about the efforts of at least a few inside the White House to put together some kind of new comprehensive compromise plan, I was braced for some major backtracking. I breathed a sigh of relief when he moved on to the trade issue without offering an amnesty or asking for larger guest worker programs.

With 28 pages of photo essays from TIME's correspondents and photographers around the world, the magazine warns readers that the Central American caravans at the U.S. southern border are just the beginning of millions more sure to follow out of the 258 million current international migrants outside their country of birth who are on the move.

Viewers of cable news networks the first of this week will have a number of opportunities to hear the uniquely commanding voice of the late civil rights icon Barbara Jordan pronounce that there is "no national interest in continuing to import lesser skilled and unskilled workers to compete in the most vulnerable parts of our labor force."

Wisconsin appears to be on the verge of joining 17 other states that allow motorists to drive on highway shoulders in order to reduce congestion during peak travel times. This "solution" reminds me of the story about the guy who came home to discover that he left the water running in a sink and attacks the problem with a mop and bucket instead of shutting off the water, in this case the "water" being population growth that is 88 percent fueled by immigration.