IN THE DAYS since President Obama’s victory, it has become an instant truism that Republicans, desperate to halt their free fall with Hispanic voters, need to make a sweeping deal on immigration reform. But no matter how strong the political impetus, fixing the nation’s broken immigration system, which proved too tough for Congress in the past decade, remains a subject for hard bargaining. And no part of the deal will be harder than resolving the status of illegal immigrants.

It’s obvious — though Mitt Romney had to learn it the hard way — that 11 million undocumented residents will not “self-deport,” nor should they. Two-thirds of them are in the work force; many of those have been in this country for a decade or more; and some have children, born here, who are American citizens. They are a pillar of the American economy. The fair and sensible solution is to grant them a path to citizenship.

via Fix immigration now – The Washington Post.