Random musings on the ‘State of the Border’:

1) Secure the Border First:
This should be obvious to everyone, all problems stem from the government’s inability to perform their constitutional duty. If you do this, all other related options become much more attractive and viable, from both the conservative and liberal perspectives.

2) Fence:
A barrier will be needed in some form. Those who say it won’t work have no evidence to support this, it has never been tried. Israel has built one and it has already shown itself to be an amazing success story, and though it’s not finished. BTW, it doesn’t have to be 100% successful, if it stops the majority of illegal migration it will be a success.

3) Penalizing Business:
Suppressing the demand for illegal migrant workers, while having some merit, penalizes the wrong people. Yes businesses that hire illegals are breaking the law but it’s only because governement has failed at their obligations to secure the border and in effect are dumping these cheap laborers into businesses lap. Having one part of government penalize business because another part of government has failed is really ridiculous.

4) Slave Labor Class:
The claim that these migrants are doing jobs that Americans won’t do is one of my pet peeves in this whole argument that no one is addressing. While I don’t believe in the premise to begin with, even if it’s true, America is not and has (since the Emanicipation Proclimation) never been about having a slave labor class that is willing to do the work the other classes are unwilling to do. Just because they are doing it voluntarily does not mean that they are not, in spirit at least, a slave labor class. They are working under these conditions because they are not legal and therefore do not have the same rights and leverage that legals do.

5) National Guard:
This might be a short time bandage but ultimately it’s the Border Patrol’s job to perform. Managing the border is a policing type task, not a military one. Tracking, capturing and detaining people for processing is policing, the military is good at killing and destroying things. Putting them into this role sets up the potential for a big accident, a la Kent State or Abu Ghraib. The President says that his proposal will not have them directly interact with the illegals - so what will they be doing? He says they will build fences (not the ‘BIG’ fence as far as I could tell), roads and other infrastructure, all good but that seems like a small part of the problem. He also said they will do training - training who? The Border Patrol? Other Guardsman? It’s not at all clear how they will be adding value. Ultimately a boatload of new BP’ers need to be hired.

6) Guest Worker Program:
Conceptually I like this idea but in actuality it will not work. A whole new goverment bureaucracy will have to be created to administer this program and the goverment has a terrible record for effiency and in some cases outright fraud. To think that this department will ferret out the fraudulent worker documents, etc. that will certainly make their way into the system is not clear thinking, look for example at how poorly the State Department manages visas. And who is going to track down and deport those illegals who make it through? Ans: The same people who are supposed to be deporting the illegals here now.

7) Fast Tracking Amnesty:
For those who are in favor of any eventual fast track scenario for amnesty, a simple question: Who is going to deport those illegals who don’t jump through the appropriate hoops? Ans: see above.

8) Melting Pot:
This ridiculous concept that we can absorb innumerable numbers of people from any and all cultures without a deleterious effect is absurd. Does anyone think that if for example 100 million muslims migrated here over the next 20 years there would not be a cultural penalty to pay? Just look at Europe’s recent problems and you have your answer.

9) Certification of Border:
Some Senators are introducing an amendment to the Senate version of the bill that will require the Homeland Security Department to ‘certify’ that the border has been secured before the amnesty-type provisions kick in. This is an interesting concept but probably not doable as the certification, if it was ever issued, woudl likely be phoney but it will serve the purpose of probably killing the Senate version so it has some merit.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 15th, 2006 at 9:01 pm 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.