The Real Deal on Illegal Immigration, our Expensive Bandaid
Republicans, Election 2008, Immigration June 7th, 2007
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Immigration seems to be a new rallying point for the Republicans lately. The biggest idea that they can come up with is building a wall, recording the illegal alien in a computer system, and then trucking them all back to Mexico. The first illogical thing that many people think is that by building a wall along the border you will be able to keep illegal immigrants from coming across the border. This tends to defy logic by miles figuratively and in reality. The border is not just a line on a map, anyone that has visited the border will tell you that the area is massive not just an easily drawn line across the border. In many places the border crosses right through the middle towns. A wall is not a realistic solution to the illegal immigration issue. Also walls without watching will be breached. If someone is willing to walk or be trucked for miles in the desert to cross the border how much is a fence going to slow them down? Second, the system to record illegals is already out of date and inadequate to capture and validate illegal aliens. The system is run and maintained by the government, who can barely maintain their current systems without spending billions of dollars, and still not having the kind of relational data on felons that they need to make decisions on people residing in the country. The third issue is that somehow all of these illegal aliens must somehow return to their country of origin and then wait up to 13 years to be processed? What exactly is in it for the illegal alien to go through the system?
The real deal is that people are coming to the US not to escape some kind persecution, they are escaping the financial disaster that is Mexico. With massive unemployment of Mexican agricultural and unskilled workers, illegal immigration to the U.S. remains the rational option for many of Mexico’s unemployed. The incentives are irresistible: in the U.S., the average illegal makes about $60/day. The same workers make about $5/day in Mexico,when they can find jobs. So what would keep people from crossing the border? Money. With over 1.2 Trillion dollars being spent in Iraq to rebuild a country that doesn’t want to be rebuilt, if we were to invest in Mexico the kind of money we spend in Iraq immigration and our security would be greatly enhanced. Really think about it, the country that is a buffer to our very border has degraded into a wasteland and we spend money on a country 6000 miles away, these are just bad choices and twisted priorities. It’s time that we fix the problem not apply expensive bandaids.
June 7th, 2007 at 5:13 am
I don’t care which side you are on that is a funny video.
June 7th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
It has never occurred to me to assist Mexico in building her economy as a deterrent to illegal immigration but that concept makes sense for a few reasons. Money itself wouldn’t be too good due to the level of corruption in Mexican government but transferring technology, training, and knowledge with funding could really help Mexico. I have learned a bit about Mexican history and from what I’ve read the country was really economically crushed by colonialism and has never fully recovered. Would Spain be interested in providing assistance. Of course they could “spin” this support and start building up America’s reputation internationally. I’ve always been against a wall, just on principle, but something must be done about illegal immigration.
My husband is from India and now he is an American citizen. The process took many years, money and frustration dealing with a completely inadequate immigration system but we did it by the book. All of the Mexican people I know are hardworking just like all the Americans I know. It is a fine line dealing with illegal immigrants who are non criminal, here searching for a better life and the necessity of securing our borders from any type of illegal entry.
The conversation must continue until we can collectively come up with a solution that will honor immigrants and our country.
Be well and enjoy the day.