The Bobcat Nation

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/1 ... j2ynj.html

just read it...made my day

This is nothing but political chest-thumping...

It's great to talk tough about getting tough on illegal immigration, but what ideas does this article actually suggest for solving the problem? "We're going to expel every illegal immigrant, no exceptions." Great...how?

--GL

Interesting ... my girlfriend's dad was an illegal immigrant once upon a time ... and since then he's become a U.S. citizen, owned his own business, paid a lot of taxes and raised a very successful family.

Maybe a better answer is to allow more legal immigration so as to cut down on the temptation for people to enter the country illegally? That way we could focus more border attention on people trying to get in for reasons other than to take a job that nobody here wants?

Bay Area Cat wrote:Maybe a better answer is to allow more legal immigration so as to cut down on the temptation for people to enter the country illegally? That way we could focus more border attention on people trying to get in for reasons other than to take a job that nobody here wants?

I tend to agree with that as part of a solution, although I think most would agree that even if restrictions on immigration are eased, there always will be some restrictions, and as long as restrictions exist, there will always be some temptation to immigrate illegally. Thus, while easing restrictions might reduce the numerical significance of the question, the philosophical question of "how seriously should we pursue the goal of fighting illegal immigration" will always exist.

My take on the situation has always been the following: in theory, we should do our best to enforce our laws; thus, wherever we set the bar for legal immigration, we should do our best to enforce it. However, in terms of deciding what resources we should dedicate to the pursuit of that goal, we also have to look at the problem, to some extent, from a cost-benefit standpoint. The cost of preventing all possible means of entering this country illegally would be monumental, and the benefit would probably be relatively low (in light of the fact that the vast majority of illegal immigrants do no real harm by being here, and many are actually an economic positive).

This is why I always just roll my eyes at these politicians who beat their chests and proclaim loudly "I'm going to get tough on illegal immigration!!" Fine, but what measures are we going to take, and how expensive is it going to be? If it were a problem that were easily solved, it would have been a long time ago.

--GL

Grizlaw wrote:This is nothing but political chest-thumping...

It's great to talk tough about getting tough on illegal immigration, but what ideas does this article actually suggest for solving the problem? "We're going to expel every illegal immigrant, no exceptions." Great...how?

--GL

For starters, we can expel Congresspersons' homekeeping staffs...