immigration, again....

So, the Immigration debate goes on. In New Jersey, they find out that it's suicide to be xenophobic. Meanwhile, Virginia is debating making a manzanar for illegal immigrants with parking fines.

I guess I could comment on that stuff, but i'd prefer to talk about something I know: the Virtual Fence.

Jeez, this thing is stupid. I used to run a distance learning center, where I would operate cameras from 45 miles away, in Arizona, actually. I actually know a little something about why the virtual fence won't work. See, setting up camera towers in the Sonoran desert is stupid, first and foremost because there isn't a camera made that can withstand the weather. between brutal heat, and monsoon season, the camera is going to break. But, secondly, in order to insulate the camera, you're going to make it a lot slower: they're describing 30-60 second delays, which surprises me. Those Boeing boys are good, i would figure more along the 60-90 second range. Which, effectively renders them useless, in any event. Try running for 45 seconds at a full sprint. See how many yards you go. Want to bet you could evade a camera with that long of a blind spot? Then, there's the Radar net. Quick, how much do you weigh? Do you weigh 500 lbs? Because if you weigh that or less, you're smaller than a cow, and guess what? There are cows near the border. So, how is radar going to be fine tuned enough to tell the difference between you and a bovine? Again, this is stupid, right on the face of it. It's just not a good idea. I'd call it a boondoggle.

Which is why I think we should re-think how we are viewing illegal immigration. We ban illegals, and we bankrupt our cities. We ask our Cops to become border patrol, and we end up building gulags. We set up a fence, and the land, itself, defies us.

Years ago, Ed Abbey suggested sending every Latino that came to our border back, only we send them back armed.

While I think Ed was just being provocative, there's a kernal of a good idea there. If we don't want illegals in America, we have to take a look at why they are coming here, and do something about that. Maybe start enforcing the minimum wage in America, and work with other nations to improve their wages. Maybe legalize drugs. Maybe have a guest worker program, and incarcerate people for the crimes they commit, not for their status. I'm not saying I've got the answer, but I do think the method is in really looking at why they come here, and addressing that issue.