You can nitpick the immigration bill. That may not help you understand why it went down in flames.

It went down because enough of the public did not like it. Millions of us badgered our politicians to vote against it. The bill simply did not fix what folks think is broken.

Now lots of pollsters have asked Americans what they want. What they want seems pretty clear.

They want us to control our borders. They don’t like it that thousands can sneak into this country every day. They don’t necessarily want to keep the illegals out. But they do feel we should know who they are. And how many they are. They feel we should be able to keep tabs on them in this country.

They want us to stop the automatic citizenship for babies born here. Millions have come into America pregnant. Or they aim to get pregnant as soon as they sneak in. Or while they are visiting relatives. They want their babies to be born here. So they can easily become citizens.

They want us to see that people who sneak into America have broken a law. The punishment we mete out is another matter. Right now too many of our authorities do not see that a person commits a crime when he or she sneaks into this country.

They don’t want illegals to become citizens by virtue of breathing our air. They feel illegals should have to do something more to become citizens.