11.14.06
Letter to Lou Dobbs
I submitted a letter to the Lou Dobbs show today. Since I’m sure that’s just a drop in the bucket to the email they receive over there, I decided to copy it here too:
Lou,
It sounds great to say “let’s secure our borders first”. But what does that mean? What is “vigorous enforcement” of immigration laws? If those are to be the standards we must meet before having a “comprehensive” solution to immigration problems… when are our borders secure enough to actually solve some problems? What do we do when we do all these things and the illegal aliens still pour across? Stay the course?
I find it overly simplistic to think that a fence in the desert or more border security agents is going to make much of a dent in our lives; but I am sure that it will involve a huge increase in pork-barrel spending by our state and federal governments.
A “comprehensive” solution means that we try to resolve immigration problems from all angles, including resolving some of the economic disparities that draw millions of hard working, albeit illegal aliens across our borders.
One look at world events should indicate that problems are not always solved by throwing more boots on the ground at them, and history teaches us that isolating oneself or one’s nation behind walls of protection are rarely effective, and usually disasterous.
Let’s end the rhetoric and jingoism get on with actually solving these issues.
