If we really want to stop Illegal Immigration it's simple: mandatory 10 year jail sentences for anyone who employs an illegal immigrant, all the way up the management chain. Combined with strict, massive, dragnet-style enforcement.

If Illegal Immigrants can't get jobs in the US they will stop coming over the border. No need for a giant, expensive, stupid fence.

Problem solved. Any questions?

If the Shystee Immigration Policy were put in place, US citizens would have to fill the mostly crap jobs the Illegal Immigrants currently occupy. They would demand more than the Minimum Wage that Illegals are supposedly paid and benefits.

This would put a strain on small businesses but also on Corporations that depend on below-minimum wage labor like the farming and meatpacking (and consequently grocery store) industry. The impact on the corporate bottom line would be huge.

Also, since the minimum wage jobs would all be filled by US citizens, they would pressure their elected representatives to raise the Minimum Wage to a Living Wage. More impact on the Corporate bottom line, with additional consequences: If the Minimum Wage rises, workers across the board, including white-collar workers, will demand higher wages. The Corporations would throw a fit.

Current immigration policy is anti-worker and pro-corporate. It screws both legal US citizens and not. The only entity that benefits from cheap-labor policy is the Corporate entity.

Which is why the current immigration policy has been allowed to continue and why Bush's proposed "solutions" do nothing to solve the "problem". It's just a propaganda stunt aimed at inciting and leveraging poor US citizens' xenophobia and anger about their economic status.

Bush's proposed fence will do little to stop illegal immigration. As long as there is poverty south of the border and jobs to the north, people will find a way of getting across.

And as far as I can tell, Bush's proposal for "Wetback Work Permits" only makes it easier and legal for US employers to pay non-US-Citizen workers little more than minimum wage and deny them benefits. This will make no difference for US workers.

Than again, we could just eat the Mexicans. I imagine they would have a nice, spicy flavor.

Mission accomplished. Yum, yum. Que sabor rico! Oh, wait, we don't have to speak Mexican anymore. Sweet.