Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-CA, joins a growing chorus of people who think we should solve our immigration problems by buiiding a Great Wall along the entire southwest border. It worked for the Chinese, after all. The Houston Chronicle rightly observes that Duncan’s plan is “further evidence that serious people in Congress must get busy on immigration reform.”
The Albuquerque Tribune gets to the real heart of the matter: “It’s the economy, stupid!”
[T]he best and most lasting solution would be to help Mexico and other countries of Central and South America to develop economies that provide jobs of at least the same economic quality, opportunity and pay as those being pursued by illegal immigrants in this country.
Do this and illegal immigration no longer is worth the danger or the rewards.
The best argument for that is the U.S. northern border with Canada, whose economy is on a par with our own. Nobody is calling for a fence between Canada and the United States for any reason — not even national security — which makes Hunters’ claim about the Mexican border hollow.
