Take a trivial example of law breaking: downloading music off the Internet. Before Itunes, if you wanted obscure music by your favorite group and did not live in a major metro area, the easiest, and often the only way, to get that music was with swapping software. It was illegal, but hard to feel guilty about downloading a blue grass version of “Amazing Grace” from a group that stopped singing in the forties. I am not arguing that this was good thinking, but it was easy for otherwise good people to do. The odds of getting caught were small, the social sanction for doing it tiny, and the alternatives (relatively) costly. The other group of down loaders wanted to steal for whatever reason. They hated recording companies and were never going to pay a dime for music under any circumstance. By allowing for cheap and easy downloads, the music industry split the otherwise decent, but sorely tempted types, from the hard core music thieves. It did not solve the problem of the hard core thief, who continues to steal music, but it helped a good bit.
If the industry had just gone after theives, making no difference in the two groups, the public would not have supported what it would have taken to make a difference, no money would have been made, otherwise decent people would have been hurt, and the problem would only be larger.
That is the problem with a “law and order” approach to immigration that does not include a guest worker program. If you are not in this position, imagine living in Mexico a poor country that borders on chaotic. You have a family and you want to give that family a better life. You also love your country and your culture, but are not sure you can give your family that good life if you stay. The temptation to cross the border is very great. Of course, raising the cost and risk of making that crossing will deter some, but unlike the simple desire for music the need to help your family is overwhelming. You are not a “law breaking type” but you are faced with an overwhelming temptation to break man’s law, the artificial borders of a nation, to do what is right for your family.
On top of that, we have American industries who want and need the workers since our culture of death crowd has cut off population growth from most native born Americans.
We must find some way to make this sort of illegal immigrant legal, because he is going to come no matter what we do until Mexico improves as a society.
It is impossible to imagine a deterrent that will stop this sort of good man that can be ethically practiced. The nation will not support shooting families at the border, thank God. There is a limit to how high we are willing to raise the price and there are millions of people who will pay almost any price to get here. It is impossible not to sympathize with this plight even if we wished it was not so.
That is why with increased enforcement we need, really need, something like a guest worker program proposed by the President. We can split off those hard working souls who want to save their families, make them legal, treat them as humans, and accept the reality that they will come regardless. The music industry had to face this and so do conservatives. Most Mexicans would stay in their nation if they could, so a guest worker program allows for visits. We should also make legal immigration easier for those workers we need so that those good persons are not tempted by an easier illegal route.
Of course all of this must come with increased enforcement of our border laws for the hard core criminals who will defy the law and whom, even though a small minority, give immigration (legal or illegal) a bad name. Some fencing, yes. More border police, of course. But we also need a way to split the otherwise good Mexican immigrant from the illegals who no nation wants. One hopes the Senate can stop listening to radicals on both sides of the debate and adopt a mix of carrot (more legal workers we need and are going to get anyway) and stick.
We should also pray for peace, justice, and prosperity in Mexico. This is the only real solution to the problem of the border.