Dana Milbank joined the panel for MSNBC’s Martin Bashir Monday to discuss a variety of topics, but made clear very quickly what he considers to be the ultimate goal for immigration reform.

When asked by fill-in host Joy Reid about Speaker John Boehner’s assertion that action on immigration reform seemed unlikely, Milbank put down his pundit hat and put on his pom-poms:

As soon as speaker Boehner said they're not going to take up the bipartisan legislation from the Senate, it was clear this was going to be a long way off. There's a ray of hope when the President and House Republicans are talking about a piecemeal approach. But the devil is going to be in the details there, and you can definitely see House Republicans coming up with a plan that cracks down on border security and does absolutely nothing else. And that's not going to get us anywhere.

It should be noted that problems with the border have been linked to a variety of problems in the country, but because improving border security doesn’t come with a pathway to citizenship, it “gets us nowhere”.

On an unrelated matter, it is unclear whether Reid’s presence as a fill-in host is related to Martin Bashir’s offensive comments about Sarah Palin, and her recent refusal to accept his on air apology.