This is what I think is going to happen in terms of the illegal alien (oh, ok, I'll use the PC term, "undocumented immigrant") problem. I'm going to be realistic and not let this be that tinctured by my right wing / libertarian sympathies.
1. The government will secure the border. It'll take a lot of fits and starts, but eventually the Obama administration will give in, as the Mexican drug wars continue unabated outside of Tucson. The public will not stand to have parts of Arizona and New Mexico essentially ceded to Mexican bandits.
2. Amnesty will be given to all illegals in this country after the border is essentially shut down by the military. They won't be given American citizenship. They'll be given some sort of green card like status that registers all of them.
The American economy needs people to pick fruit, wash dishes, stucco, leafblow, provide hotel maid service, et al., since our people are "too good" for that and current unemployment benefits provide them with a better life if they stay unemployed than if they took a back breaking minimum wage job.
This new status will allow the illegals to become legal and thus circumvent Arizona 1070 and other anti-illegal statutes being developed. It creates a cheap, legal workforce and gains Obama and Congress the sympathies of the majority of Hispanics.
3. Eventually some sort of fence will be built as a massive government stimulus project. The manning of it will create a massive union of border patrol-like employees much like the prison guard union or (in the East, toll booth collectors) that will owe its allegiance to the Democrats. The fence and its subsequent bureaucracy will costs ten or twenty times more than government estimates within only a few years of establishment. |
