It isn't just bus fare, and you know that very well.
"work on integrating those that are already here."
Good luck. My bet is they will still be receiving affirmative action support, etc. in 20 years. Hell, in 40 years.
Economic integration leads to political integration leads to social integration. Worked for the Irish, it'll work for Latinos.
No mention of the Huns? That's pretty weak. Western Rome was invaded by a multitude of foreign barbarian tribes, pushed into Roman lands by the oncoming Huns, some settling and attempting to romanize (rather unsuccessfully), and some just lootin' and sackin' the old-fashioned way. Hardly helped. Also, the tendency of Roman leadership to fight each other as much as external enemies hardly helped. We could make a long list of reasons for Rome falling.
Suffice to say that Rome blew its budget trying to deal with all of the threats from the frontier.
RE: Farm subsidies.
Seriously, are you being serious here?
Serious as cancer. Farm subsidies are an excellent bellwether.
Could you explain how a wall would "substantially reduce hopes for our future"? Or is importing the poor, angry unskilled masses of South America really that important for the future of the United States?
A wall would be both ineffective and symbolically terrible. A wall can (and will) be flown over, undermined, or simply blown through. There's big enough money behind drug and people smuggling for the Kingpins and Coyotes to get really creative in circumventing even the most high-tech wall.
It's a stupid answer to a complicated problem. Americans aren't stupid, we can do better.
Todays's Mexicans are not like the Irish of long ago. What aided the Irish assimilation were a number of things. The Irish still (in most cases) spoke English. Secondly, there wasn't the disparity between the Irish immigrants and our own native born with regards to the average skill level and education levels. Today, nearly 60% of all Latin American (adult) immigrants that we take in on an anual basis don't even have the equivalent of a high school diploma. Third, immigration out of Ireland was nothing like the mass migration out of south of the border. The logistics involved are completely different. Mexico shares an 1,100 mile border with the U.S.. The Irish didn't have the exponential growth rate continually reinforced by an unending flood of new migrants from their home country. These are major differences.
A wall would be great if done right. Symbolically it would only offend those who were hell bent on circumventing our immigration laws in the first place. I say, "screw them". As far as someone trying to blast their way through the wall, I can think of no better way for a group of idiots to attract attention to themselves and provoke the entire law enforcement community to go after them. Precisely the kind of thing one would want to avoid if you are trying to "smuggle" yourself across the border.
What an asinine argument.