Wednesday, May 17, 2006

The Border's in Order: I have to admit that I really don't care about the big immigration debate. We're not going to be able to build a fence to keep everyone out. And all the manpower needed to protect the border will just cost too much to be worth anything.

Economically, the illegal immigrants do take jobs from Americans, pulling down some wages, especially for the poor. But they also drive down some costs, especially for items like food.

As for security, if any Al Qaeda member makes it to Mexico, there's no way we're going to keep him out. Let's just make sure we don't give any of them a student visa.

The situation between the U.S. and Mexico works fine the way it is. Lots of people will try to make it in looking for work. Some will succeed, some will have to succeed another day. But, overall, it doesn't concern me.

I just wonder how this became such a big issue. I'll give some credit to the Minutemen. Their cowboy antics brought a lot of media attention. Then politicians in Congress decided to make this an election issue. President Bush, whose guest-worker program is probably the best proposal on the table, got pulled into the vortex.

The only way to stem illegal immigration is to cut off the demand -- and that means cracking down on businesses that hire these workers. Since that will never happen under a Republican administration, nothing is going to happen, period. We'll just have to wait for the next big issue to take the place of this one.