Just A Suggestion

It's just a suggestion. To get the debate going. A rhetorical trope, if you will. Not that anyone is advocating it, of course.:

Iowa Republican Congressional hopeful Dr. Pat Bertroche thinks the immigration debate in this country is hopelessly stuck, and says he was only trying to get the dialogue jump-started when he suggested we place microchips in illegal immigrants.

...The commotion started at an event on Monday, where Bertroche appeared alongside other Republicans looking to take on Democratic Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA). During a discussion of illegal immigration, Bertroche said: "I think we should catch 'em, we should document 'em, make sure we know where they are and where they are going," according to a local news report. "I actually support microchipping them. I can microchip my dog so I can find it. Why can't I microchip an illegal?"

Bertroche doesn't deny what he said. He just says his comments were meant as "a critical social commentary," and that he wasn't able to complete his thought, because he felt pressured to say something quickly, and audience members were starting to get up and leave.

...In his official statement addressing the incident he wrote:

At what point do we stop with the political ideologies, and start discussing common sense solutions? How many more boxcars full of dead immigrants do we need before we start addressing, in realistic terms, this tsunami of human slavery? How many more torn and broken families do we need before we agree to address, in practical terms, the magnitude of human misery created by illegal immigration?