The Education Wonks
Legal Immigration is a great thing, as you mention. The man that does trash and janitorial/stock work at my workplace is from Mexico. He's completely legal and fluent in English. He is the hardest worker I have ever seen. No matter the job, he does it whistling and smiling, occasionally trying out jokes in English.
My dad immigrated here from Iraq awhile back. He has a deep-seeded resentment of illegals because if they really cared about the country, they would take the time to obtain legal status. My dad is simply grateful that he was allowed to be a part of a great country.
Illegal Immigration is our weakest point, in my opinion, on the War on Terror. Those who wants open borders need a reality check, and hopefully it won't be the kind we all awoke to in the fall of 2001.
This is one of your more impressive posts and one that should really be widely read, in my humble opinion.
Thanks for the great comments guys! It makes my day! 
If we are serious about this we will actually do something about the red tape, so that it doesn't take years for people to get into this country legally.
And if we are serious we will have some sort of mechanism for allowing those here illegally to "earn" their way into the system. (This must, of course, be harder than coming in legally, or you will create perverse incentives.)
And if we are serious we will actually take into account our own needs in terms of labor, instead of pretending that we only need X number of foreign-born workers, when we really need Y number (Y being, of course, the number we allow in here, sub rosa).
Great post Mike! It amazes me how most politicians are so "180 degrees" from the populace on this issue.
And what is really scary is that Hillary is setting herself up in a more conservative position than almost all the Republicans out there. I don't believe she really feels this way but she has got to turn her "fellow traveler" CV into a more centrist resume if she intends to pursue further government employment.
Most politicians of either party won't touch this issue for fear of offending Hispanic voters (eg, McCain). Hence the inaction.
Victor Davis Hanson's book Mexifornia is a moral approach to the problem. Society is complicit because we appreciate the cheaper goods & services we get by employing illegals. People say they're serious about illegal immigration, but are they willing to pay more?
They don't necessarily realize they're going to pay the price one way or another. Stopping illegal immigration would also put pressure on the criminal oligarchy in Mexico City to provide for their own people.
Congratulations on your award-winning article!
"the construction of such a secure and well-policed fence is possible, but highly unlikely (in this country) due to a wish to avoid the negative world-wide publicity and political costs here at home that the construction of an effective barrier would incur."
Huh? The U.S. is such a great place that so many people want to come here that it takes a *&^@@#$! FENCE to control their illegal entry. So, like, when the world finds out about that, there will be world-wide NEGATIVE publicity? Has it actually come to this?
I have a question. If an executive branch of the U.S. government were to arbitrarily issue a directive to cease enforcing all laws based on the separation of church and state, I can guarantee you the ACLU, et. al., would bring suits SOMEWHERE (everywhere??), and somehow have the courts or congress begin impeachment proceedings forthwith. Could someone find out and report just how they'd do that? Then, how 'bout we organize and do whatever they'd do, and force this government to enforce the freaking laws on the books, or face serious consequences? They can damned well try to change the laws they don't want to enforce.
This isn't necessarily anti-latino. It's merely a problem that when politicians can selectively choose to enforce which laws they like, and simply ignore the rest of them, we have a government in crisis. We just don't realize it yet.
It is absolutely outrageous for a government blatantly to pick an area of the law and simply ignore it. There HAS to be something legaly possible, more forceful, and quicker than the ballot box to address this problem.
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