Beyond the Slogans, Border Security Gets Complicated

It is becoming quite apparent that border security is an issue that North Dakota primary candidates have been advised to address by their overpaid consultants. Allegations that the compromise immigration bill crafted by very conservative Oklahoma Senator Langford and Independent Arizona Senator Sinema was killed to keep the immigration issue alive are looking more and more credible.

“Build the wall” slogans make for good sound bites, and a wall is a partial solution. That said, the cost of actual, not pretend, border security would be a very long and expensive task. In addition to our long border with Mexico from Texas to California, there is the Canadian border from Maine to Washington state. Then there are the Pacific coast, the Atlantic coast, and the Gulf of Mexico coast

The logistics of actual border security would either create an expansive new bureaucracy or require a massive diversion of military troops. This, in an era when military recruitment is down and fewer young people can pass the required physical tests. To cure the court backlog, hundreds if not thousands of cops, government lawyers, and judges would need to be hired.

Rounding up the over eleven million people presently here illegally would hauntingly remind the world (which is predominantly not white) of how we rounded up the Japanese during WWII. Someone might ask the uncomfortable question of why we didn’t also round up the Germans.

America’s economy and freedom, warts and all, is the envy of the world. Meanwhile, in our hemisphere, there are organized crime shadow governments in Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, and Ecuador. Haiti, Cuba, and Venezuela are a mess. There are few functional economies south of the border. There are also few functional economies in Africa.

According to The Economist magazine, Latin America’s murder rate is four times the world average. America will continue to be the world’s most desirable destination. Do we really believe that illegal immigration can be fixed with lower taxes and less government? If only it were that simple.