I listen to all of the anti-immigrant vitriol with amusement. 1) We talk about illegal aliens but don't know who or where they are - the reason for that is that when we find them we send them home or enter them into long judicial processes no one can bear - no wonder they are all underground - its the practical result of our complex laws and our inability to enforce them.

2) I became a citizen of the US not because I am deeply in love with the US but because I have long ago discovered that life is about having the correct paperwork, it was costing me a fortune not to be a citizen, and the bureaucracy was unbelievable - my solution - become a citizen it has to be easier / cheaper than dealing with INS. People talk about deporting folk well the long and the short of it is that INS (congress) has made it impossible to know what to do to get that done. I once received a letter from INS saying that since they did not know who I was, my recent application had been denied! I had written to them, clearly providing identification as to who I was, to inform them (as required by law) that I had moved and my new address was such and such - application denied indeed, I was not applying for anything, I was informing them that I had moved. Who are these monkeys - they couldn't spot an 8 foot tall illegal albino bald Caucasian in a tribe of sun tanned pigmys sitting on a basketball arena - INS is a joke.

3) Governments don't get to dictate what languages people speak - its been tried a million times - the people dictate what language government speaks - all this nonsense about forcing people to speak English fails to take into account that the folk for whom this is a problem don't speak English as a result governments have to speak Spanish or whatever if they wish to communicate with the public. Just because the majority of us US folk say those who are non-English people should learn English does not mean it will happen. US business has long ago learned that if you want to engage someone you have to speak THEIR language. If they are getting along just fine speaking Spanish why would they ever learn English - no need. Its the equivalent of making a public service announcement in Chinese - no one will hear you. If you want to communicate with these folk you need to speak their language. Plus in communities where they have elected officials in office they they have the right (check the constitution for the 1st amendment) to petition government - if the petition is for government to speak Spanish to them then so be it - we the people have spoken.

The problem with most of the current immigration chatter is that it does not address the real practical situation on the ground so we end up making laws for a situation that does not actually exist or cant be enforced as intended. I hear words like "amnesty" pop up all the time "We cant give them amnesty etc etc!" heck we ALREADY gave them amnesty - that is water under the bridge, they are here, right on your doorstep picking your fruit and putting milk in your fridge everyday. They are not going anywhere - we can't round them up because we don't know who they are and we don't know who they are because when we do we round them up - and you only get to do that once - they wizened up to that and don't talk to government anymore. You can't force businesses to turn them over because 1) they can't determine who is illegal and who is not (because INS has such complex laws including things like over 300 different types of visas) and 2) if they did turn them in no one would show up to milk cows tomorrow and they get paid for milk.

Its a bit like the anti-gun lobby with their "If you remove all the guns then there will be no need for some one to have one" In a perfect world thats completely true, but of course the practicality is that you cant remove all the guns and so in the end only the outlaws have them and you're in a worse place than before.

Immigration is a genuinely complex issue - its like the square root of a negative number, there is only an imaginary answer - certainly not one solvable by someone who needs votes to stay in office. And those laws from Mexico - well they are just words on paper aren't they.

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