It is just not something that can be accomplished in short order. The president would certainly have done that if he were able.
Never before have so many hard opinions been formed under so much misinformation or here say as has recently. Therefore, I reserve judgment for the time I see the facts as they truly are, not by what I assume they are or what someone else tells me they are.
I dream of a secure border much more than going to Mars.
A new great wall is not the way, or at least not the most important aspect. The way to go is employer sanctions. The employers of illegal aliens are willing to pay the odd fine here and there (yes, I know these are hardly assessed anymore, but if they were the employers would be willing to pay). What the employers are NOT willing to do is to go to federal prison. Not even for a month or two. So we need a two step process. First, make it easy for employers to know who is legal. This will ruffle a few feathers of civil liberties extremists but will not require turning the country into a police state. Then, haul into criminal court a few hundred employers who continue to employ illegals. Do this, and most employers will fire their illegals in fear. Them most illegals will soon stream home, leaving INS to work on those who are left.
The President didn't clearly call for this because it would create some short-term human suffering. But let's not say it can't be done. In fact, the President gave Americans the impression that it would be done by saying that there would be increased penalties for employers who hire illegals rather than those under the new three year visas. Also, listeners were given the impression that employers would be punished if they gave a three-year visa holder a job without offering it to American citizens first. Since employers for various reasons won't be willing to live up to the three year visa rules*, the Bush plan can really be interpreted as send-them-home in disguise. Whether it will be depends on Congress and on whether the President was serious about giving citizens first dibbs.
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* Reason 1: Employers' labor needs are often last minute, any last minute by definition violates the give citizens a chance to apply first rule. Reason 2: Advertising is the only realistic way to show you offered the job to Americans, and employers won't want to have their customers see that they are advertsing three-year-visa type jobs. Reason 3, the biggy: According to the President, the employers have to take a qualified citizen over an alien who appears on interview to be a harder worker, or whom the employer knows from experience is a good worker. Employers will find this new intrusive government regulation, requiring the hiring of any old American citizens over harder-working aliens, to be an intolerable intrusion into how they run their business.