on immigration laws

It seems to me that we have got the whole immigration issue wrong. Instead of building walls to keep people out, let's let them in. It seems to me that if we are going to let Mexicans build our cars and toasters that can come over our borders with no barriers, then the people who make them should be able to come across as well. It may seem that we are opening ourselves up to invasion, but that invasion will continue to come one way or another, unless we seal our borders so tight that nothing comes in (goodbye Wal-Mart deals) and nothing goes out including trips to Stonehenge, Jerusalem and the Vatican. It seems unfair that we can buy cheaply made products from outside our borders and gain no government (read that tariffs) from the goods coming in and live well, while others who want to come to this country to live better are walled out. This seems to me to be a real oxymoron concerning immigration law. In addition, if we allowed people to come across the border freely, but with constraints such as the old European Economic Union had where you came across at checkpoints, we would be better able to control the prospect of terrorists getting into this country. Of course, the argument that illegal immigration fuels the possibility of criminals coming in and bombing another site such as the Twin Towers (9/11) is preposterous. All of the bandits on the planes that went down that day were in this country legally, at least to start.

Of course, there is also another possible answer. Let's have a plebiscite in Mexico as to joining the United States. We could add a whole bunch of new states to tax and end the argument about fencing a long border. If we still wanted to put up a fence the southern border of Mexico is much shorter. I can't take credit for this idea, but it sounds as if it might work better than a $5000 fine, going home for a year and taking a chance on being let back in.