Immigration bog

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/apr/19/cutting-services-to-illegal-immigrants-isnt-easy/

Even if a person is in favor of open borders, in a welfare state the reality is that state budgets are overwhelmed if too many people use social services and don't pay enough into the system to cover the cost. If most of the immigrants are working and paying taxes, then it would likely be a wash, but what happens when there just aren't enough jobs, and the immigrants have families to support?

I don't like the idea of shutting down the border, but the current situation is unsustainable for the states at the border. A strong economy will help, but it might be years before the economy recovers, and by then states might go bankrupt. Our laws and our system of welfare ensure that the problem will get worse.

If we had a truly free market, then there would be less need to worry about immigration -- there's plenty of room and if the obstacles to economic growth are removed, then the extra workers will be needed, and immigrants can then enjoy American freedom and pay their way -- who would have a problem with that? Unfortunately our statist system is not set up to receive many immigrants, unless they are highly educated and trained to do specialized work, without draining state budgets.

Futile arguments over symptoms

http://trueslant.com/conorfriedersdorf/2010/05/07/on-racial-profiling/

I don't think any law enforcement agencies in the America are going to start rounding up people based on their race because of the illegal immigration or terrorist problem. It's good to debate even the appearance of racial profiling, but racial profiling isn't our problem, so spending an inordinate amount of time with racial profiling is a waste of energy when fundamental problems need to be resolved.

I'm not singling out Conor Friedersdorf -- his just happened to be the last blog I read. The problem is that hardly anyone, especially the federal government, is coming up with any fundamental solutions. The illegal immigration problem from Mexico is a real problem for real people, some who have a lot to lose, even their lives as the violence and drug wars escalate.

One fundamental solution is to legalize marijuana. In 2010, there's no excuse to not legalize marijuana. I don't smoke pot, but plenty of people do and it's practically legalized now as far us use goes, so now we just need to legalize the selling side. The drug wars are senseless and they need to be ended.

Another fundamental solution is to make immigration much easier, remove the red tape, develope work programs, etc. Then build the fence as best we can, because it doesn't seem that Mexico is going to cooperate wih us to solve the problem.

One of the fundamental solutions which is out of our hands is that Mexico needs to embrace free market principles. We can put a lot of pressure on Mexico to do this, but as long as we're fighting against free market prinicples here at home, it might be a little hypocritical.

The illegal immigrant dilemma

Despite the righteousness on the left regarding Arizona's law strengthening the enforcement of laws preventing illegal immigration, they have the same dilemma -- what to do? As revenues to the government are not sufficient to handle our promises of entitlements, there will be growing anger that immigrants are coming into the country illegally by the millions. The simple fact is that we have high unemployment, unions are fighting for higher wages and better working conditions, our government services are being strained by overuse, and it's unlikely that illegal immigrants are adding more to the economy than they are taking -- I don't know how this can be properly measured, but  if the illegal immigrants weren't here, the jobs they do would be filled by unemployed Americans who could demand higher wages, so this alone makes it likely that illegal immigration is a drag on the economy.

Statist countries with a strong welfare state have to eventually control who accesses the services, because otherwise the State will quickly go broke -- like we are right now. Statist countries have to have strong border control and illegal immigration enforcement, especially the ones with a generous welfare system. As always, Americans want their cake and eat it too, but statism doesn't allow this, not to mention reality doesn't allow it either. What's happening in Arizona is not a spontaneous combustion of racism where the people of the state suddenly became uncontrollably racist, it's a natural, pragmatic reaction to reality made possible by federal incompetence.