Fortunately, a real solution to the immigration problem is fairly simple: pass living wage legislation and crack down on the real problem: illegal employment. Once these steps are taken, it will become obvious how many immigrants we need in this country. At that point we allow in enough workers to fill the vacant jobs, pay them legally, deduct taxes, and provide a path to citizenship, just like we did with every other immigrant group.

Like all problems, the only effective solution involves identifying the root cause (in this case, illegal hiring of illegal immigrants in an effort to keep wages low and maximize corporate profits) and attacking that cause. Instead, the corporatocracy has characteristically demonized a group of people that are simply trying to survive, while distracting attention from the real demons: themselves.

Unfortunately, Bush's allies in this scam are primarily the democrats who have bought the conservative propaganda regarding this issue, and have taken their eyes off the real root cause. Some of these democrats are complicit (bought by corporate America, just like their counterparts across the aisle) while others are somewhat naively searching for a moderate, bipartisan solution to an apparently difficult problem.

A wall is a failure by definition. If we continue to allow our elected officials to buy into the conservative framing of this issue, the result will inevitably be similar to our wars on drugs and terror. We all know how well they have worked out.
Joe

http://butlerdemblog.blogspot.com