"Misguided Border Patrolling"

A week or two ago I read an op-ed in USA Today written by a Ruben Navarette, a writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

In it, Mr. Navarette blames everybody for the illegal immigration problem: local, state and federal authorities, politicians, businesses and ordinary citizens. Everybody that is except for the illegal immigrants themselves. As if the USA were some kind of powerful magnet that illegals are helpless to resist.

He advocates a "three strikes" law, saying that current laws are too lax because they contain a loophole (one has to "knowingly" hire an illegal immigrant). Well, aren't the illegal immigrants "knowingly" breaking the law? (Of course, Mr. Navarette convienently omits the adjective illegal, preferring simply to refer to them as immigrants.)

He's correct that the government, especially the federal government, has failed in its responsibility to enforce current immigration laws. Yet he doesn't suggest any kind of guest worker program. Such a failure wilfully ignores the security implications of our long, undefended border with Mexico.

My own position is that we should change the law. I favor a guest worker program similar to what they have in many Gulf states and Japan. Such workers are welcome to stay as long as they have a job. However, once their employment is up, they must return to their native country. I don't believe that each and every resident alien should be placed on a citizenship track. We've got 300 million people. We don't need an undefined number more, thanks.

(By the way, for those keeping score at home, this was my 150th post.)