How to stop illegal immigration


A fascinating insight into the debate on immigration in Mexico features this revealing sentence: "The elites want to help get more rights for Mexicans in the United States; the immigrants themselves just want better-paying jobs at home so they won't have to go to the United States in the first place."

I'll say it again: if you want to stem the tide of illegal immigration, invest in the Mexican economy.

Not as emotionally satisfying as building a wall, I grant- but far more likely to be effective.
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Comments

Anonymous said…
What do you mean by "invest in the Mexican economy"? Do you mean you want me to buy stock in Mexican industry?
5/31/2006 04:59:00 PM
Robert Elart Waters said…
Buy stock in Mexican companies. Trade with Mexican companies. Even subsidize Mexican companies, if necessary. Every dollar spent building the Mexican economy to the point where Mexicans can get jobs in Mexico equivalent to what they would get in the States is a stronger blow against illegal immigration than all the empty and unenforceable penalties and "enforcement" measures the immigration "hawks" can dream of.
5/31/2006 06:46:00 PM
Anonymous said…
If you ask me, let the Mexicans, Canadians, Polish, Russians, Arabs, heck, anyone who wants come. IF they're not looking to kill anyone, they have as much right to come and help themselves (and America) by getting jobs. They have at least as much right as our ancestors did when they came.

The laws have changed, but the reality that we have jobs that need workers. We benefit then from lower costs of production and services, the benefits of which are passed on to others.
5/31/2006 11:43:00 PM
Robert Elart Waters said…
The laws haven't changed, except by becoming more lenient. There were quotas when most of our ancestors came to this country, and only so many from each country were allowed. Sneaking in wasn't allowed then, either.

When my ancestors- or yours- came to the country, they had to comply with the law. My ancestors entered the country legally; chances are, so did yours. And how do we screen out those who do come into the country to kill somebody, if they're allowed to sneak in? Just as a talking point, forty percent of the population of California's state prisons are illegal immigrants!

Nor is it the case that there are jobs in this country that "need doing," and that Americans won't do. It's that Americans won't do them as cheaply as illegal immigrants will. We don't benefit form the lower costs of production and services. Rather, many of us are deprived of jobs that should, by rights, pay a great deal more because people who are in the country illegally are willing to do them for less.
6/01/2006 12:33:00 AM
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