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Get the border secured or lose the elections

Glenn Reynolds pointed me to this post that I thought was right-on! James C. Bennett asserts what I have been saying all along--secure the border as top priority and as step-number-one, THEN start talking about other related issues. You cannot discuss any option or convince anyone to the possible solutions to the problem of illegal immigrants, until there is assurance that more illegals will be coming in. This can only happen if the border is secured--really secured. I smell beltway blaber-talk when they talk about a "virtual fence." Virtual as in it only exists on paper and on the good senator's press releases?? Common! The government will not be able to do this effectively.

Without an effectively secured border, none of the other measures are likely to work well, even if we decide that we can stand them. Particularly programs that require a large force of government agents to be effective day in and day out in the face of a substantial segment of the public that does not want them to succeed. Without a barrier, we cannot even consider any other form of regularization, and say "but this time we mean it". With a barrier, however, we have a much wider range of options. Of course a barrier won't be cheap, won't be quick, and will never be 100% effective. But it will be cheaper in the long term than a new, massive internal police force, and it doesn't need to be 100% effective -- it just needs to make things substantially more difficult than they are today.

Many people also point out that any amnesty program today would only be an invitation for many more new illegals to come in, in the expectation that this amnesty would not be the last. As things are today, this is true. With a barrier, it would be possible to start discussing seriously the terms and conditions of regularization, increased legal quotas, conditions of entry and residence, and other issues. Since I do not have any objection to immigrants per se, and since I also think that the total number of immigrants the US admits could be quite high, given an active assimilation culture, I would support a generous offer on all counts. But it doesn't make sense to start talking about it when one side of the discussion has no intent to wait before acting, and the other side has no means of preventing it.

If the current administration cannot grasp these simple facts, then it will suffer in 08 and before for it.

I am not one that wants to advocate for a third party candidate, and I certainly do not advocate abandoning the GOP, as we all know the Democrats' so-called-solutions are only going to make things worst. But they are sure frustrating the base, and the base is going to look for a way to assert their voice! For those that worry about what sort of message a wall might send, give me a break! Just hire some PR people, and get the right and positive message out--it is not an impossible task. Get the border secured!

Tags: Politics, border, Homeland Security, MEXICO, Immigration, Illegal Aliens, Border Security, California, GOP

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