You make some very good points.
What do you suggest doing to (1)secure our borders against a tide of non-assimilaitng illegals (2) keep terrorists from using our open bordrs to attack us ?
I have not said anywhere that securing our borders would be either cheap or easy. I just think it is something that needs doing. Whatever the cost, it would be money, time and effort well spent. If you think otherwise, this is just going to be something that we disagree about.
Freegards
In no particular order:
1. End the welfare state. That way, America sucks if you're poor.
2. Set up a guest worker visa that does not grant residency. We had one for over a decade prior to 1965. Johnson killed the program to pay back his liberal supporters in the AFL-CIO; the current illegal immigration problem started up immediately thereafter. I submit the two events have a cause-effect relationship.
3. By making it far easier and safer for all concerned to be legal as opposed to illegal, the perverse incentive for illegal immigration is removed, and that makes the job of securing the borders a great deal easier. Fewer illegal immigrants coming over to begin with allows for more complete investigation of those that do come over, as opposed to the current revolving-door policy, for example. Less illegal immigration also allows for a more sensible allocation of manpower along the border.
The key is to identify an fix the main problem. Simply trying to keep people out, without any real reform of American law, is not going to work--there is no way in hell that the average American is going to support the intrusive enforcement measures needed to do that.