The Minuteman, the Mexicans and Ahnold.

I cannot for the life of me figure out what is wrong with saying that the Federal Government should strongly enforce the border to stop illegal immigration. Can someone out there enlighten me?

The Minuteman Project is proof positive that all it takes to slow down this tidlewave to a trickle is effort and the will to enforce the law. Nothing deters illegal crossings better than 'boot on the ground' patrolling the border. Do we need more Border Patrol Agents? Yes. Are they the answer? Not entirely.

There will always be illegal immigration into the US as long as the opportunities exist to go from living in abject poverty to relative wealth and comfort here in the US. If were born in Mexico City's huge shanty towns that surround the Capitol, I would take my family to the US in order to have a better life for my children. This does not make crossing into the US without the proper documents legal, no matter how poor you are, the law is still the law.

I am under the impression that Carl Rove is a smart man, he knows more about politics and demographic politics more than anyone I can think of. I just wish I knew the reason why the President does not see illegal immigration problem for the huge crisis it is. I know that those on the left will say the Carl and W. and just pandering to Big-Business interests that rely on illegal workers as a cheap source of labor. That is not it. The majority in this country wants illegal immigration stopped or slowed down substantially, the Republicans would be poking themselves in the eye if they put this small special interest group in front of the party as a whole. Carl Rove is not that dumb.

I have also heard that the majority of Mexicans that cross the border are Catholic, family oriented, and hard working folks that given the choice would be more apt to vote Republican that Democrat. This makes a little more sense, but still does not deal with the reality of the party's resistance to illegal immigration. If you are bringing in new voters to the party, you will be alienating far more.

A family crossing the border to make a better life is a problem that we can handle, maybe with some type of guest worker card that they can use to stay here for two or three years. We will know who and where they are, they will pay taxes and they can apply for citizenship when they get back to their country of origin and wait their turn to become citizens. They would not be eligible for welfare or medical, but there kids should be able go to school. Here is the catch, we must enforce the border to stop all the rest of the immigration or the plan will fail. Farmers, restaurant owners and construction companies will hire the cheaper non-guest workers. There will be a black market of illegal workers. We will be back to square one.

The biggest problem I see, is the illegal aliens that make up close to 20 % of our prison population here in California. Why should we pay 70,000 dollars a year to house these criminals? I know that we buy a few billion dollars in crude oil from Mexico, why doesn't President Bush tell Vincent Fox to build a couple dozen prisons on their side on the border? Heck, I would even be willing to subsidize them. I would rather pay a $5,000 dollars per Mexican criminal to be held in Mexico than $70,000 to have him here. Mexico gets the jobs that come with building the prisons, they staff them, and we pay them to keep them there. Everyone wins.

I hope the Governor will get behind this effort to curb illegal immigration. He should fire the folks on his staff that think that "enforce the border" is hate speech. Come to think of it, maybe the President should do the same.

Hat tip to Miller Time.