Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and Marco Rubio shed some light on their plans for amnesty for illegal aliens on Wednesday.

Trump talked about the possibility of giving amnesty to as few as eight million and as many as twenty million illegal aliens.  Trump said:

There's going to be a big beautiful nice door. People are going to come in and they are come in legally. We have no choice. otherwise, we don't have a country. We don't know how many people. We don't know if it's 8 million, 20 million.

Eight to twenty million is vague, to say the least.  Trump has always said that after deporting them all, he would allow the "good ones" to return.  But he has never defined who the good ones are.  Are the ones who lied on their visa applications the good ones?  How about the ones who used false Social Security numbers?  How about ones arrested for drunk driving?  There is no way to know.

In any event, it raises the natural question of why Trump would go through the effort to deport so many if they will simply be allowed to return.  A lot of questions, but no answers.

Meanwhile, Ben Carson talked about his plan for amnesty for illegal aliens.  Only he didn't call it amnesty; he called it "registering to apply for work permits."  Under the Carson plan, illegals would have six months to register and apply for work permits.  If they don't, they can be deported.  Carson stresses he isn't offering them citizenship, but if he would not deport them when they were illegal, there is zero chance he will deport them as guest workers, so effectively, they will get to stay forever, and sooner or later they will become citizens.  Carson expressed great sympathy for farmers and hoteliers who need cheap illegal alien labor.  He says he wants to bring them out of the shadows.  He talks just like a liberal.

Furthermore, Carson seemed to say he would consider citizenship for illegals if the American people somehow "indicate" to him that they want it.  Carson isn't running for president; he's running for a weathervane.

Marco Rubio, who continues to support amnesty for children of illegal aliens, also promises work permits for illegals who have been here more than ten years and are "not criminals," presumably excluding the criminal act of crossing the border illegally.  I really doubt whether activist judges or a future president will tolerate a future class of permanent residents who are non-citizens.  Allow them to stay, and they, and their extended families, will become citizens.

Let's also be clear: both Donald Trump and Ben Carson want a fence on the border.  But their policies toward the illegals already here seem to be lenient at best.  As for Ted Cruz, he has been silent on what to do about the illegals already here, so maybe Cruz or Trump is the best we can do on the subject.  Carson I don't trust, because he seems to talk like a liberal sometimes, and we need someone who will hammer away at illegal aliens, not their mothers.

This article was written by Ed Straker, senior writer of NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.