Sorry George, Not So Easy An Answer

Guard the Borders -- And Face Facts, Too

By George F. Will
Thursday, March 30, 2006; Page A23

America, the only developed nation that shares a long -- 2,000-mile -- border with a Third World nation, could seal that border. East Germany showed how: walls, barbed wire, machine gun-toting border guards in towers, mine fields, large, irritable dogs. And we have modern technologies that East Germany never had: sophisticated sensors, unmanned surveillance drones, etc.

It is a melancholy fact that many of these may have to be employed along the U.S.-Mexican border. The alternatives are dangerous and disagreeable conditions for Americans residing near the border, and vigilantism. It is, however, important that Americans feel melancholy about taking such measures to frustrate immigration that usually is an entrepreneurial act: taking risks to get to America to do work most Americans spurn. As the debate about immigration policy boils, augmented border control must not be the entire agenda, lest other thorny problems be ignored, and lest America turn a scowling face to the south and, to some extent, to many immigrants already here.

To control belongs at the top of the agenda, for four reasons. First, control of borders is an essential attribute of sovereignty. Second, conditions along the border mock the rule of law. Third, large rallies by immigrants, many of them here illegally, protesting more stringent control of immigration reveal that many immigrants have, alas, assimilated: They have acquired the entitlement mentality created by America's welfare state, asserting an entitlement to exemption from the laws of the society they invited themselves into. Fourth, giving Americans a sense that borders are controlled is a prerequisite for calm consideration of what policy that control should serve.

Of the nation's illegal immigrants -- estimated to be at least 11 million, a cohort larger than the combined populations of 12 states -- 60 percent have been here at least five years. Most have roots in their communities. Their children born here are U.S. citizens. We are not going to take the draconian police measures necessary to deport 11 million people. They would fill 200,000 buses in a caravan stretching bumper-to-bumper from San Diego to Alaska -- where, by the way, 26,000 Latinos live. And there are no plausible incentives to get the 11 million to board the buses.

Facts, a conservative (John Adams) said, are stubborn things, and regarding immigration, true conservatives take their bearings from facts such as those in the preceding paragraph. Conservatives should want, as the president proposes, a guest worker program to supply what the U.S. economy demands -- immigrant labor for entry-level jobs. Conservatives should favor a policy of encouraging unlimited immigration by educated people with math, engineering, technology or science skills that America's education system is not sufficiently supplying.

As you Say Mr. Will, facts are stubborn things. The most glaring fact is that these illegals have shown little if any inclination to follow the current laws. The real dilemma is what do you do if these immigrants refuse to educate themselves in the English language? What do you do if they refuse to pursue American citizenship? Are you then going to ship them out? We haven't done this in the past, are we now going to change with this new law? I seriously doubt it.

This is a problem with no easy solution. The American economy is greatly dependent on foreign labor. Anyone who tries to deny this is whistling in the dark. I don't know what the solution is, but I suspect that merely passing a new law which, in essence, says "This time were really, really serious. No really, we mean it this time. We were only joking last time but this time we really, really mean it, no kidding," is not going to solve the problem.

If you can't or won't enforce the current laws, then your new laws have no credibility with lawbreakers.

Full Story: Difficult Problem, Hard Answers

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