"Just enforce the current laws."
So, round them up and deport them? Do you actually see that as being a feasible solution? How? At what cost? Any cost, for as long as it takes?
Sorry, but I don't see that approach accomplishing much - at least not without tons of unintended consequences. Too many here already and too much demand for their labor.
In reality, the "flood" of illegals has slowed to a trickle (it might even be negative from Mexico lately) because of the economy, but when that turns around, more will come to meet demand. And they'd come in spite of Herman Cain's high voltage fences (if they were actually feasible and realized) and e-Verify systems for hiring managers (the latter won't stop all hiring, particularly of causal labor and migrant farms workers, though it does help with big employers like carpet mills in north GA). As for mass deportations, billions of dollars of roundups probably wouldn't even offset new arrivals in a strong economy.
"Just enforce the laws" is an easy thing to say and to demand, but it doesn't solve the problem. Even if Obama wasn't issuing executive orders to ignore the law. At best you get the pre-executive order status quo.
We were on the right track a few years ago (pre-Obama), with talk of a guest worker program designed to give illegals an incentive to return home so they could apply to return legally, but protectionists and xenophobes attacked anyone involved in trying to negotiate a workable law, falsely labeling it "amnesty" and a "path to citizenship", ridiculously calling for "impeachment" of Senators, etc. Dead before arrival.
Maybe with Romney in the WH, a GOP takeover of the Senate, and Rubio leading the discussion, we can finally get serious about "doing something". |
