Nothing the US has ever done about immigration across the Mexican

[leftofthedial]

border has ever made the slightest difference in the flow of people. It has continued and escalated through strict prohibitions, lenient policies, amnesties . . .

The cost of effectively sealing the border would dwarf the economic impact of the workers IMHO.

Short of creating a police state on this side of the border (admittedly more likely now than it used to be), the immigrants once here are almost invisible.

Cracking down on employers might have more effect, although millions are employed by individuals and small businesses that are impossible to regulate.

So, in short, it is not a meaningless issue, but whatever new policy is enacted or not, it won' have much effect.

Meanwhile, I think this is another wedge issue PR campaign by the right and will be used just like the gay marriage issue to frighten, divide and distract the voting populace. As our outrage is focused on this issue, it is focused away from much more important (IMHO) issues--Iraq, the economy, healthcare, the environment, education, etc.

[babylonsister]

1. No shit. That's what is going on.

I have a friend in Corpus Christi, TX, who is so pissed about immigrants, but can't wrap her head around anything else. I don't know who she's listening to, but it makes me ill.
This immigration issue is a bullshit one (though I admire their tactics!).
I've said before: 3 outraged bunches of people this weekend. Anti-war, Darfur, immigration; who got the most attention?
I HATE the media, because they aren't addressing the real issues.

[TriMetFan]

2. Well put in many ways.

But I still think that if The American Government were to start fining the hell our of companies then most of this would go away.

Second I do agree it is just another wedge issue for the RAPE-ublicans, just like Gay marriage was.

Look at all those brown people taken your American jobs away from you, but don't look behind the curtain.
:mad:

[mike_c]

3. I posted about the reasons for this in another thread tonight....

The basic problem is that the permeability of any barrier is a function of its length and the strength of the gradients driving flux across it. The southern U.S. border is very long, so that's always going to be a difficult problem, probably impossible to deal with in any permanent way. But the biggest problem is that the strengths of the social gradients driving people across the border-- economic disparity, dispair, hunger, fear, and so on-- are independent of anything that we do at the border itself, so they will overcome any barrier when they are strong enough unless those gradients themselves are controlled.

Add to that the active roll that the U.S. plays in maintaining the economic disparity in Mexico and you begin to see why the barrier approach can never work. The more impermeable we make the barrier, the higher the gradient pressure rises, and the equilibrium flux across the border is maintained. That's why NO management efforts have ever made any significant difference. They contain the seeds of their own undoing. The only thing that really changes is the human cost of breaching the barrier.

[leftofthedial]

4. a legitimate solution, based on social justice

would involve hundreds of billions of dollars of aid to MExico and other Central American countries. The cost of continuing to pretend it's a real border is unsustainable.