Immigration Reform -- Is there a Right Way to Do It?

I don't think so.

There are two sites at which immigration occurs: the border with Mexico, and everywhere else.  The southern border is essentially a semi-permeable membrane, and the trickle of people through it is virtually inevitable.

There are two kinds of smuggling, too: drugs entering the USA from Latin America, and everything else.  The demand for drugs in the USA is so great that the customs barriers are also semi-permeable, and the flow of drugs is inevitable.

It seems clear to me that the economic realities of Mexico and the USA are difficult or impossible to change, given the vested interests of all the parties involved.  So the economic pressure to keep illicit immigrants out can only do so much to stem the flow.

On the other hand, the demand for drugs --essentially recreational drugs, even if the term seems hardly appropriate for the vast majority of users-- has little or nothing to do with the massive economy of the USA.  This demand certainly can be changed.  I would like to see all those who are supportive of the new Arizona Immigration Law try to persuade any of their friends who are part of the drug culture to give them up for a year!  Ha ha, just kidding; druggies can't give up anything for a year.  The puzzle, for American drug lovers, is how to keep the drugs in and the Mexicans out!  We've come to think of Mexicans not as thinking, feeling human beings, but as mere obstacles to the American Way of Life, or AWL.  (In actual fact, they make a good deal of the AWL possible.)

How many of these drug users are there, anyway?  Are there just about 15 people in the USA who buy and snort all the cocaine, or are there millions who do little bits of it every day?  How many people will we be upsetting if we make use of illegal drugs a capital offense?  Now there's a lovely thought! How many people will we make happy if we make all (recreational) drugs legal?

But in Better Mousetrap Land, there just has to be a way of shutting the borders to illicit immigrants, while keeping them open to the drugs, for those who want them.  I've given up getting all upset about the contradictory desires of my neighbors.  (Huge cars AND great mileage.  Easy job, requiring practically no education AND big paycheck.  Big meals AND slim figure!  Small Government AND powerful military!  Huge polluting trucks that haul cheap food AND clean air!  Lots of unprotected sex AND no pregnancy!  Lots of yummy drugs from across the Mexican border, BUT no actual Mexicans.  Tons of garbage AND not in my back yard!  Luckily we have Pennsylvania.) 

Still, it seems silly for Mexico to complain about the USA Immigration policy, when theirs is so draconian.  A guest-worker program would make sense, though there are sure to be some disadvantages to it.  The one thing that it makes no sense to demand of the Mexican government is that they should improve the economy of their country.  That's as silly as telling Washington to just stop our own Economic Recession.

Arch.