Border security in USA is, I’m afraid, a fantasy. An impossibility. Three words: border too long.

Border security is the only way to get Americans to accept liberalized immigration. 2010 is a congressional election year.

No matter how much the Left dances and prances, moderate Dems, terrified of losing their seats to the GOP, aren’t going to go along with ramming any more left-wing schemes down the voters’ throats. They would be dooming themselves if they did.

The rubes are have a real problem hearing Spanish being spoken at the local Kroger. It was OK when it was limited to places like San Diego and Miami. But now that flyover country is being settled by new immigrants

Your contempt for all those folks who don’t live in Blue States is hereby noted.

It’s truly remarkable how so-called “progressives,” who constantly bleat about saving humanity from this or that, can have such contempt for all those who don’t live like them.

he rubes are have a real problem hearing Spanish being spoken at the local Kroger. It was OK when it was limited to places like San Diego and Miami. But now that flyover country is being settled by new immigrants, nativist resentment is setting in. The era of the big tent will not return until the GOP is hungry enough and has enough new blood to bring it back.

Nearly everything the Republicans do these days is music to my ears. Short term thinking (get the rubes to vote for us in 2010) over long term viability (a***s kicked in 2012) and beyond.

Thing is, immigration liberalization greatly relieves the burden for border patrol. No longer must law enforcement waste resources chasing people with benign intentions, since those people could cross legally at any official border crossing. There’s no reason to cross in remote areas under desperate conditions.

Border security is nothing more than a ticket for expanding government. And it can all be avoided by refusing to pursue and prosecute people whose crimes do no harm to person or property.

Similarly, government immigration quotas are biased to dysfunction from the get go. The notion that the government can correctly determine the needs of the labor market is as absurd as the notion the government can determine the needs of any market. Such government regulation is something that we should move away from, not embrace in the name of immigration reform.

The problem with Republicans is that they are increasingly vested in driving away Latinos specifically, and immigrants in general, all to placate the shrinking white populist demographic. It wasn’t long ago that the pro entrepreneurial and business environment GOP was a fairly natural match for immigrants regardless of legal status. No more. The rubes are have a real problem hearing Spanish being spoken at the local Kroger. It was OK when it was limited to places like San Diego and Miami. But now that flyover country is being settled by new immigrants, nativist resentment is setting in. The era of the big tent will not return until the GOP is hungry enough and has enough new blood to bring it back.

So an intelligent, English oriented immigration policy that matches numbers with demand would go far to position the GOP as a party committed to positive solutions, not inflammatory rhetoric.

That was the essence of the Bush immigration bill, which he, McCain and Ted Kennedy had worked on for a long time.

In 2007, it got shot down by the right wing of the GOP.

But they couldn’t have done it alone if they didn’t think the public would back them up. The Congress, attuned to what their constituents back home were saying, defeated the bill.

At the time, Rasmussen Reports asked Americans how they felt about this idea of providing illegal immigrants with a path to citizenship. The response was clear: Americans would support a path to citizenship, but ONLY AFTER America’s borders were secured. If America’s borders were secured, support for the Bush immigration bill rose substantially. If America’s borders were not secured, support dropped off to only a minority of respondents.

Bush tried to separate the two issues (and I fear Obama will too). That did not go over.

The only solution that Americans seem to want is one in which the border is secured so that we control the number of illegal aliens–and then provide a path to citizenship for those who manage to leak through anyway or who are already here.

So I’m sorry, an English requirement isn’t enough satisfy Americans who continue to see this unchecked flood of illegal aliens. They want that flood controlled–and then those who are here can be treated humanely. That makes sense to me.

I think WillyP actually makes Sinz’ point. That this is not a fight over economics, but culture. So we can agree that they are a net plus, economically speaking?

Not all cultures are a plus.

The Muslim culture presents a special problem for us Americans–because a disturbing number of them just don’t believe in the Bill of Rights, or even in secular government. I was amazed that they were even willing to tell me so openly.

But that’s not what Hispanics are here for. They came here seeking a better life, not sedition or conquest.

Hispanics are NOT “invaders.” The only “invaders” we have to worry about today are the ones howling “Allah Akhbar”–just before they blow themselves up.