Illegal's- A solution?

The media has not come up with a viable solution. They only talk about it in such terms that will allow the free flow of illegals into this country. The leaders of our country have not come up with a viable solution because they want more voters and also the Latino vote.

Arizona came up with a solution that many believe will work. It involves enforcing current law but the nat'l government obviously does not want it to work so they throw roadblocks in front of the law's path.

There are solutions which involve enforcing current law if the political will is there.

So, archer, now you have been enlightened. But it sounds as if you believe that there is no solution. What is your idea of what will work?

Hmmmmmm.....nope, I certainly don't feel enlightened, all you have done is parrot the current popular phrases like "enforce the current laws" with no suggestion on how we do that. Sounds so simple doesn't it.....only for the simple minded. It isn't simple and you probably know that.....we have neither the money nor the manpower to do that. Unless we are willing to raise the debt or taxes to get the money to enlarge both the border patrol and the local authorities.....and to beef up the actual physical border then you can say "enforce the laws" all you want and it won't happen.

Arizona's laws don't even address closing the border.....only targeting those illegals already here. Nice idea, but not working because......you guessed it, we don't have the money to do it. We just laid off over 400 law enforcement officers.....the rest are busy enough trying to keep the citizens safe without adding the burdon of looking for illegals.

I don't have all the answers, I'll leave that to you, but being on the front lines of this "war on illegals" here in Arizona does give me a different perspective than I had living in Colorado. The border isn't some nice little line you can patrol with a handful of border guards, it's nasty country, rugged in many places, and inhospitable most of the year. We need to invest in a technological solution along with the man power. We need to put the full force of our creative minds into building either a physical or virtual fence that can be monitored 24/7. It's going to take money, and time, and some sacrifice for the American people as we can't do it without raising taxes......the money just isn't there. But no one wants to make the hard choices.....either we do this right, or we don't do it at all and resign ourselves to having an ever growing illegal polulation for decades to come.

The answer (IMO) is to bring our troops home, build military bases along the border and use more of the military budget for radar technology and unattended sensors http://mcbordersecurityinc.com/page2.html . In order to remove the incentive for illegals to come here, we would have to destroy the economy and bring the US to the level of Mexico. Mexico will always be a hell hole and that is not our fault...we need to protect what we have and what those before us died for.

Let's invade Mexico and bring it up to our standards. It's closer than Iraq, so should be a cheaper war :Whistle

If the answer lies in centralizing more power at the federal level, it is the wrong answer to the question that was posed.

We don't need a national ID card, we have state issued ID cards. We don't necessarily need a federal border fence or to rely exclusively on federal forces to secure the border. The states are sovereign, they have the right to secure their own borders against the improper migration of people into their state. They have the sovereign right to disallow the migration of people into their states who are not citizens of their state or the union of states. The federal government has been granted the power to prohibit such migration if they feel it improper by the Constitution, which means they could tell Arizona that they couldn't allow the migration Arizona wished to allow, but not to force a state to allow migration that the state itself deems improper.

Once again, the answer lies in not allowing or expecting the federal government to solve the problems within a state. That is properly the responsibility of the state and the state should be expected to take care of that. If they need additional help, then the rest of the states will, as part of the union compact, help that state provide for its defense. All the states have pledged to support the defense of one of their fellow states within the union when needed against insurrection or invasion.

PrintSmith wrote: If the answer lies in centralizing more power at the federal level, it is the wrong answer to the question that was posed.

We don't need a national ID card, we have state issued ID cards. We don't necessarily need a federal border fence or to rely exclusively on federal forces to secure the border. The states are sovereign, they have the right to secure their own borders against the improper migration of people into their state. They have the sovereign right to disallow the migration of people into their states who are not citizens of their state or the union of states. The federal government has been granted the power to prohibit such migration if they feel it improper by the Constitution, which means they could tell Arizona that they couldn't allow the migration Arizona wished to allow, but not to force a state to allow migration that the state itself deems improper.

Once again, the answer lies in not allowing or expecting the federal government to solve the problems within a state. That is properly the responsibility of the state and the state should be expected to take care of that. If they need additional help, then the rest of the states will, as part of the union compact, help that state provide for its defense. All the states have pledged to support the defense of one of their fellow states within the union when needed against insurrection or invasion.

Hmmmmm....lets lay the cost of this on the border states? Right, like they have the money to do that....not to mention that illegal immigration is a NATIONAL problem, and needs a national response, You can't expect a few states to shoulder the cost of protecting the entire nation from illegal immigrants. Well, I guess you could, but it isn't going to get done, the southern border states just don't have that kind of money, period.

Which is why the proper federal response to Arizona should be "How can we help you accomplish the goal of preventing the improper migration of people into your state" rather than telling them to butt out and let the feds handle the situation. See the difference archer? One recognizes the sovereignty of the state and one does not. One is an assistance from the other states to another state in the union, the other is not.

The one that is not is the wrong solution to the problem. Arizona should be allowed to address the problem of the improper migration of people into Arizona and to have the assistance of the federal government in solving the problem they are facing if they need additional help to do it. Arizona should be the primary authority in the matter, not the federal government. The proper role of the federal government would be to assist the state of Arizona in exercising its authority, not usurping the authority from the state of Arizona. The Constitution only grants to the federal government the authority to stop migration which it feels is improper that the state would otherwise permit. If the state wishes to stop improper migration, the role of the federal government is to assist the state, not do the job for the state.

I can promise you that allowing Arizona to be the lead authority with assistance from the federal government on an as needed basis would yield much better results than having the authority to address the problem rest solely with the federal government. Arizona has the most to gain from preventing improper migration into their state. I'm betting that the good citizens of Arizona would be much happier paying for the prevention of improper migration than they are paying to sustain those who have migrated into their state improperly in the areas of education, health care, subsidized housing and all of the other social welfare programs mandated by the federal government after the fact.

Since the current government chooses to not enforce the laws, why reward them with more taxes and power? Better yet, when an illegal is confirmed in this country a government employee looses their job. Talk about finding a quick solution, they will be tripping over one another to secure the borders.

PrintSmith wrote: I'm betting that the good citizens of Arizona would be much happier paying for the prevention of improper migration than they are paying to sustain those who have migrated into their state improperly in the areas of education, health care, subsidized housing and all of the other social welfare programs mandated by the federal government after the fact.

The good citizens of Arizona aren't providing these services to legal citizens right now, much less illegals. What part of Arizona is broke don't people understand? We cannot enforce the laws we have, we cannot afford more agents on the border, and probably never will have the means to do so. We need a national solution to a national problem, something that is consistant across the entire border.......but neither party is willing to tackle it......this isn't a liberal problem, it belongs to everyone.

Surveyor wrote: A national ID is not a solution. It is an invasion of privacy and further erosion of our freedoms. We already have social security cards that are supposed to be the card without which we cannot get jobs. That's really working, isn't it?

We have passports too--more of a national ID than anything. Reading the "solution" offered in the beginning of this thread, I wonder if we should also start speaking German and pledge absolute allegiance to the president. The parallel is frightening sometimes.

We need to find a way to lessen the incentive for the illegal immigration. Don't know how to do that with the demand for illegal drugs here at all levels of our society. As for getting work, what work? We can't find jobs and, I suspect, neither can a lot of the illegals coming in. If you read about what they go through to get here, you have to wonder what the incentive is because the crossing is no picnic. Remove that incentive to start a solution rolling. One thing that I think we should do is permanently remove the traffickers--the "coyotes" as they are known.

Why is a national ID an invasion of your privacy when a state ID, such as a Colorado drivers license is not? Wouldn’t a national ID be more practical than 50 different state ID’s?