ENFORCE the God d*mn laws on the books.I brought up the 55 analogy for this very reason. The laws are not enforceable. Greater enforcement will come by degree not kind from what we have today. As with drugs, the demand overwhelms the regulation. And the regulation drives up the price.
It's a no winner, no matter how you get at it. That doesn't mean we must abandon it, or not upgrade our efforts. We must be focussed, and concerted in our directions. Worrying about the totality of illegal immigration will only lead to the kind of frustration being expressed on this thread. It's wasted energy.
I think we'll see from this Administration some liberalization of illegal immigration, perhaps by way of a Reagan-type forgiveness, accompanied by a Reagan-type crack down. It's the only way. It must also have a hugely directed Federal attack on all forms of incentives for illegals.
That, and a security angle. Speaking of which, I suspect that greater danger to our security lies in drug trafficking than in illegal alien activity. The two are tied, but the traffickers are the pros. If anyone is seriously looking to attack the homeland, it will come with the help of coke smugglers, not apple pickers. That's part of what I call realistic targeting of our resources. We'd lose the forest for the trees the other way around. And, I have no doubt our people have kicked up these efforts against drug traffickers precisely for this reason.