I agree 100% with your first paragraph, and I wholeheartedly agree that the revision of the border location complicates the whole issue. Of course, Europeans were invaders when they landed on Plymouth Rock, and I recognize this, though ultimately, times have changed and the borders and laws are what they are in the here and now.
I don't know what the answer is, but I know what we're doing currently isn't working, and isn't one definition of insanity "continuing to do something that isn't working"? Dovetailing on your point about the conditions in Mexico, I don't think any meaningful change will be possible so long as living conditions, wages, and corruption in Mexico are so atrocious. Faced with a choice of stark poverty in Mexico or "getting by" in the US and still able to send money home to family, who wouldn't consider crossing the border? And INS doesn't have the resources to deport even a fraction of the illegal immigrants currently here, so it's a decent bet that once someone gets across they'll be able to stay if they keep a low profile.
I think what you're getting at is that one single policy or law won't ever be able to address such a huge problem; the answer (whatever it is) has to include a multifaceted approach. Our government (as usual) is going about this with blinders on, and I'm not hopeful that's going to change any time soon...
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-12-20 02:44 am (UTC)I don't know what the answer is, but I know what we're doing currently isn't working, and isn't one definition of insanity "continuing to do something that isn't working"? Dovetailing on your point about the conditions in Mexico, I don't think any meaningful change will be possible so long as living conditions, wages, and corruption in Mexico are so atrocious. Faced with a choice of stark poverty in Mexico or "getting by" in the US and still able to send money home to family, who wouldn't consider crossing the border? And INS doesn't have the resources to deport even a fraction of the illegal immigrants currently here, so it's a decent bet that once someone gets across they'll be able to stay if they keep a low profile.
I think what you're getting at is that one single policy or law won't ever be able to address such a huge problem; the answer (whatever it is) has to include a multifaceted approach. Our government (as usual) is going about this with blinders on, and I'm not hopeful that's going to change any time soon...