a physical and technological fence?

To keep the bad guys out? Come on. Fences have been used throughout history with little success but for the shepherds. Illegal immigration isn't only affecting the US. No no, it's prevalent all over the world- Germany is having trouble with it; in Spain they worked out a broad plan in 2005. I've heard from friends that in Portugal there are illegals from northern Africa and Brazil.

The tough nut about illegal immigration is that illegals are not inherently bad guys; they are not all terrorists or drug czars. Perhaps they are desperate, maybe they have so few work prospects that they have to leave their family. Perhaps the family they left behind is so poor that even our weak dollar is yet stronger than their home currency. My point in all this is that the question of illegal immigration is not black and white. It cannot be- it is about people. The concept of people includes both contributors to the community as well as undesirables. Make a note that even illegals have people who love them; people who cry at their funerals.

Perhaps it's time to reconsider why mexicans, or Brazilians or whomever, need to come here in the first place. Perhaps it's time to rework the immigration system- it's very hard to become a citizen legally. There is a lot of scary red tape. Hell, manny ramirez didn't become a citizen until he was a year and a half with the Red Sox- and he was in Cleveland for 7 years before that. He's a big league athlete, with presumably the best lawyers, translators and work sponsors around. It took him 8 years. imagine a kid just off the boat, with little more than a set of skills. Come on. That's not easy.

I don't have the answers. but I do know that wholesale deportation is no more the solution than wholesale admittance. More so, if I don't have the answers, I certainly don't have the means to carry them out. That's all for the politicians to do;

I sort of hope that this silly post on a thursday morning will reach politicians, and make them aware that illegal immigration is not to be trifled; is not simply an "issue" with which to win an election, it is a conundrum of human proportions. Real, human, proportions.