Secure the Border. Then What?

Hypothetically, let’s say the borders are secure. There is a fence and drones and technology and people in uniforms ensuring that no one is getting into the country illegally. The only people immigrating here are coming in through the front door.

Now what?

We still have ten to twenty million illegal immigrants in the country. Some studies have the number as high as forty million. What is going to be done with them?

If laws like those passed in Arizona catch on, many will self-deport.

After just six weeks, Arizona’s system is already working: Newspapers in the state report that illegals are self-deporting by the thousands. Apartment complexes in Phoenix and Tucson confirm that thousands of tenants have skipped town. Many are returning across the border to Mexico.

This success is proof that attrition through enforcement works. The premise is straightforward: The way to solve our illegal-immigration problem is to ratchet up enforcement while making it more difficult for employers to hire illegals.

Illegal aliens are rational people. If their chance of being able to work illegally goes down, while the chance of getting detained goes up, at some point the only sensible thing to do is go home.

The same thing is happening in Oklahoma. Those in the country for work, but here illegally are simply going back home. If this trend continues, and the law is enacted by other states, there could be a mass exodus of illegal immigrants out of the country.

But what about those who don’t self-deport? Well, hard core criminals need to go. They get deported without question. I don’t think anyone would argue with that. But what about the folks who have been here for years. I don’t mean, like, three years. I’m talking about illegal immigrants that were carried across the border as babies and are now driving age. Should we just deport them?

Some would say yes. They are in the country illegally, so they should go. Others say that there should be a “path to citizenship.” I can see the point in that also. But I have to wonder how many would self-deport if there were such a path.

It is a complex issue with no simple solution. But the first step is simple. Secure the border. Once we stem the flow of illegal immigrants into the country, then we can look at solutions for those who are already here. But until the border is secure, any solution is moot. Reagan proved that with his amnesty bill. It was dependent on border enforcement. There was none and look at where we are today.

I am interested in what everyone else thinks. How are we going to correct the situation?

This is part 5 of a 5 part series on Illegal Immigration
Part 1: Illegal Immigration and National Security - It Is Worse Than You Know
Part 2: The Human Cost - Part 1: Coming to America
Part 3: The Human Cost - Part 2: Out of the Shadows, Into the Morgue
Part 4: The Human Cost - Part 3: Importing Pedophelia
Part 5: Secure The Border. Then What?