You can all flame Mc Cain for the way he responded to this question but he was actually showing some human decency here. It seems that the current discourse in the States says that you have to take the position "all illegals are criminals and I will smoke them out of their caves and kick them over our borders" to be taken seriously. It wasn't always that way..
Mc Cain obviously doesn't agree with this point of view. He was willing to state that he will secure the borders but not that he will hunt down every illegal in your country to kick them all out.
Whether you agree with the man or not.. This was actually the first time ever that I have seen him stand up for a personal believe and I respect him for it.
Which is not to say that his Iraq soldier - illegal mother analogy isn't completely ridiculous and that the man would still be the worst possible choice for the Presidency... But on this one issue I think he actually showed a human face. Whether you agree with him or not.
Yes, destroying your own nation's middle class is very compassionate.

If McCain has his way those illegals will be pissed to find they came all this way just to live in Mexico v2.0