I’m really not sure that I have any real understanding of what it means to be an American anymore.
Yesterday, the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Duncan Hunter, a California Republican called for the construction of a “high-tech fence along the nation's border from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico” as part of a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration. Included in his bill: increased penalties on employers who hire undocumented workers, faster deportation of illegal immigrants already in the United States, and the denial of citizenship to U.S.-born children of illegal entrants, among other measures. He will introduce the bill shortly, clearly as some kind of companion or counter to Bush’s proposed guest worker program. "This legislation implements appropriate and necessary solutions to many of our nation's immigration problems," Hunter said.
When I was down in Louisiana last week, a number of people talked about “those people” coming into Louisiana and getting construction jobs.

Um, color me stupid, but if we paid farm workers and construction workers a living wage instead of day labor wages with no benefits and no protection for on the job injuries, what’s the chance those jobs would be taken by undocumented workers? If the undocumented workers don’t have a ready source of jobs, wouldn’t there be less of a chance that those jobs would inspire folks to risk everything, or worse, pay huge sums of money to those who exploit their need. And better yet what if we worked to improve the economies in Central America, instead of imposing a “Free Trade Zone” that will destroy wage growth initiatives under way in Central and South America?

Governments who build walls, whether to keep people in or out: East Germany, Israel, ancient China….hmm…not working so much for any of them. What the hell are we thinking? Is this who we want to emulate?