Inconsistency by American Policy Makers on the War on Drugs and Illegal Immigration

President Bush signed a bill on October 26, 2006 authorizing 700 miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border with the hopes that this gesture will give Republican candidates a pre-election platform for asserting they're tough on illegal immigration. Those whom are vehemently opposed to ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION have been clamoring for a fence or wall or any serious barricade to stop anyone, Mexican or otherwise from illegally entering the United States. After years of placating big business interests in cheap, illegal labor, the executive and legislative branches of our government finally decided to heed the call of its people and do something, anything to stop to the flow of illegal immigrants from coming into our country. The fence isn’t everything but at least it was a start in the right direction.

Anyone with half a brain and the ability to do elementary math should realize that this country cannot support millions upon millions of people using public services such as schools and hospitals who do not pay back into the system. Yes, they do pay sales tax on items bought in stores, but those receipts hardly cover the gap in tax receipts they do not pay i.e. income tax, property tax, etc. They also do not even come close to covering the cost of caring for all of these individuals medically, financially, educationally or in any other way, shape or form. Also, when you factor in the cost of policing and jailing said illegal immigrants (many turn out to be vicious criminals) plus the end result of their ruinous effect on labor wages, the bill for just allowing these people to cross our borders willy nilly and just make a life for themselves without attending to proper procedure becomes an unbearable nightmare.

I won’t bore you with statistics or news stories, those exist in abundance and can easily be sought out with a simple Google news search. The myths that illegal aliens do work naturalized citizens won’t or that illegal aliens somehow add value to the economy has been debunked eight ways from Sunday. That’s not what I want to talk about.

While I believe that a barricade on our borders is a good start, ultimately there are only two real ways to definitively deal with illegal immigration that will work in any real sense of the word. First the federal government must have the will and gumption to seriously punish any company or employer that employs illegal aliens. I would suggest jail time and possibly liquidation or seizure of that persons business. I’m as capitalistic as the next man but I also believe that business people have a responsibility to uphold all of the business laws just as we regular folks have a responsibility to uphold civic law. Simply put, if you drive drunk, for instance, you will have proven that you are not responsible enough to own a drivers license and as such it will summarily taken away from you until you grow up and learn to respect the law. This seems like a great way to treat CEO’s and such that prove they are not mature to follow the rules of their chosen profession and as such maybe they shouldn’t be allowed to own a company. A bit harsh, maybe, but I will say it will certainly make a man think before he hires an illegal alien to labor for him.

While punishing crooked bosses is a nice and righteous thought, the best way to stop or deter illegal immigration is total deportation. If you are found to be here illegally, under any circumstances, you must be sent back to your own country. That’s it; no questions, commentary or debate. If you are here illegally, you need to be rounded up and kicked out as soon as possible.

Here’s the rub; many have said that total deportation is impossible. They say that it can’t be done either physically or economically. They say that it is too expensive and there is not enough manpower or buses to stop the flow of illegal immigrants coming over from Mexico or anywhere else for that matter. They say we need open borders, general amnesty and infinite tolerance for Third Worlders just trying to make a life for their family.

Balderdash!

We’re a country that builds expensive bridges to nowhere and attempts to import democracy at gunpoint so don’t tell me how “expensive” total deportation would be. As a matter of fact, last year a study by a liberal Washington think tank put the cost of forcibly removing most of the nation's estimated 10 million illegal immigrants at $41 billion a year, a sum that at first glance seems preposterous as it exceeds the annual budget of the Department of Homeland Security.