Keep immigration simple, Republicans, and get it done

Congressional Republicans are treading into dangerous immigration territory where there are many ways to fail. Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley’s proposal is a good one, offering a path to genuine reform. If they stray from that path Republicans could easily blunder into one of several pitfalls.

The first would be to expand the bill. The euphemism, “comprehensive immigration reform,” sounded like a good idea to lots of policymakers and commentators in the Bush and Obama years. But it should now be anathema, for it amounts to an undemocratic Washington trick for which there is scant support outside the small circle of Republican, Democratic, and big-business elites.