e-commentary

The outlines of proposed immigration bills include a provision to require those who are in the country illegally to return home before being considered for legal re-entry.  Of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, is there a realistic expectation that even 10,000 would be fooled by this offer?  The desire to control a country’s borders is a reasonable exercise of sovereignty.  However, the border with Mexico will always be as porous as a colander.  Building the Berlin Wall on the border with Mexico is as ill-fated as the Berlin Wall.  Under any scenario, the Wall can only be constructed economically with illegal labor from Mexico.  As someone observed, if the U.S. builds a ten foot wall, those who seek to enter will build an eleven foot ladder.  Some will tunnel under the wall and others will saunter around it.

There are likely to be a million non-legal immigrants a year into the U.S. every year regardless of what is done or not done.  Trying to stem the tide of illegal immigration is akin to passing legislation ordering the tides to stop running.  The tides flow in and out with some predictability.  The tide of immigrants flows one way.  In 2008: 13 million total non-legal immigrants; 2009: 14 million; 2010: 15 million; 2011: ….  Some have said that the immigrants bring with them poverty; every immigrant group coming to America brought with them poverty–the British, French, German, Dutch, Russian, Italian, Irish, Polish, etc.  Americans are legitimately divided on the just solution and would rather debate the challenge.  At core, Americans are simply unwilling to admit the limits of legislation.

Bumper sticker of the week:

No Hoy Excusa La Violencia Domestica

This entry was posted on May 21, 2007 at 9:25 am and is filed under Immigration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.