Immigration Reform: The Great Wall of America

Built with ancient technology, The Great Wall of China is 3,948 miles in length, but took several centuries to complete. Even so, why is it so difficult to imagine a mere 700 mile long fence being built with 21st century technology in just a few years time?

Not only is it possible. It's absolutely necessary.

We cannot continue to allow undocumented people pouring over an unprotected border to the tune of eight-hundred thousand plus a year and migrating unchecked to every urban and rural community in the United States. Despite all the rosy pictures being painted by advocates, even if the majority of border runners are in pursuit of a better life, there are multitudes that are in pursuit of an easy life of crime and/or government handouts. We certainly welcome the former, but by all means, we certainly cannot be so open-armed to the latter. Consequently, we need a system that differentiates between the two, rewards integrity and controls the flow.

Secondly, in today's climate of international tensions it is only a matter of time that such a huge security gap will be exploited by a group such as al Qaeda or one or more of its surrogates.

Another fact we need to face is that deporting 11 million people is never going to happen. But we still need to get control of the border immediately because at 850,000 a year, 11 million will be 15 to 20 million by the time we make up our minds.

What these people did to get here was illegal. Their staying here is illegal. Their demanding privileges is really immoral. But, America has allowed itself to be pulled over barrel and there really isn't much we can do bout it… except close the border now! And then assimilate those who are already woven into the fabric of our society.

Aside from disturbing picture of all the Mexican, Guatemalan, Honduran and other flags I've seen on the news floating down American Boulevards protesting American immigration policy, the most disturbing experience was overhearing the comment I heard on the news that at least someone is demanding that no wall be built along the Mexican-American border at all. Another man, I think an organizer, boldly demanded "We are not going to stop until we get justice, equality and pursuit of happiness."

In the first place, comparing the waving of those flags in protest to the waving of Italian or Irish flags in celebration, (in case you are wondering, I'm African American), is misleading to say the least. But the comment regarding resisting the wall or fence along the border should really raise some alarms.

Many times mass coalitions are formed and presented as a group with a single agenda. Only later do we find out that, as is all too often the case in human endeavors, that certain agendas are covert until revealed at a convenient time.

In high school I wrote a paper on how important it was for the United States to bring Mexico up to American standards for economic and security reasons. I was then confronted with what is at the heart of most of Americas foreign and domestic problems… racism in all its blind, myopic and self-defeating glory.

Criminalizing facilitation is also a necessary step in my opinion. Employers are a key piece of the puzzle. Firstly, because they are purported to be the one entity that the illegal is in pursuit of, whereas they seek to avoid just about all other officials. Secondly, drying up the well incentives is the second key to drying up the flood waters.

There is a lot of discussion about floods of illegals bringing wages down, but proponents of that ideology seem have a severe case of one-dimensional thinking? From my perspective the real problem is this: What good is a 20% raise, if your buying power goes down 50%? In my lifetime I have seen gasoline go from 25 cents a gallon to over $2.50. I have seen bread go from 10 cents to nearly $2.00. A first run movie used to cost 50 cents. So, in my book people blaming the people running across the border in however many numbers for sinking standard of life are delusional. Perhaps illegal immigrants are not making it any better, but they certainly are not the reason our economy is not producing more high paying jobs, why high paying jobs are flooding overseas, or why low-paying jobs are all that's left. There is a much more fundamental problem at work.

In many respects these are our own chickens coming home to roost. Ad to this mix that America basically stole large parts of Mexican territory. Some may argue that America was justified because states such as Texas and others wanted independence. However, they choke on their words when asked to apply the same standards to Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, etc, etc… Over a hundred years later, emotions still run high on both issues. So we cannot ignore the sense of entitlement many of those migrating from Central and South America may harbor and why we see Mexican flags flying on American streets.

They're here. And they are here to stay.

Welcome to America… you sly rascals you.