Secure fence, immigration wall, whatever you want to call it. Stupidest thing I ever heard of in my life. Well, maybe not stupidest, but ranks right up there. Useful for nothing except lining the pockets of the crony companies that get the contract to build it from whatever political party happens to be in power (yeah, they’re all guilty). Put up 700 miles more fence and you cover what–a third of the border? Fantastic! That leaves only two thirds for illegals to stream across like fucking water. If we don’t want illegal immigrants in the country, then putting up a fence, wall or whatever isn’t the answer. Removing the reason they come here in the first place is the answer. As far as I know, it’s illegal for businesses to hire illegal immigrants, but those laws are poorly enforced, if at all, and many businesses don’t care whether a green card even exists, much less whether it looks legit because no green card means cheap labour and no benefits. I say enforce the laws, make them even tougher if that’s what it takes. Some little pansy-ass fine isn’t going to act as a deterrent because it’s cheaper (especially for large companies) to disobey the law and pay the fine if they happen to get caught than it is to hire legal employees. If you want to get the attention of a business, you’ve got to hit them where they’ll notice–in their profit margin, and hard. If I am a business owner and I know that I’m going to get checked, and if I’m found to have illegals in my employ, I’m going to get an enormous fine, then guess what? I’m going to be careful. I’m going to check up on immigrants that I want to hire, and if INS doesn’t have them on file, they’re not working for me. Same for private individuals. If Miguel Hernandez the groundskeeper comes with a large fine because he’s illegal, then it’ll be cheaper in the long run to hire Joe Smith, or Carlos Gomez the legal immigrant. It’s not ALL the fault of employers–there will always be those in such poor shape in Mexico that anything is better–but the steady stream will slow to a drip if there’s nothing for them here. Illegal? Sorry–no health care for you. No job, no health care and they’ve got nothing here for them. Nothing here for them, no reason to come here. No reason to come here, no need for a stupid fence. That’s the way I see it.