Take this radio broadcast from Nashville last year; an anti-immigration activist was speaking before a live audience about her visit with border patrol agents. She told the conservative talk show host how the border patrol may repeatedly deport the same Mexican migrant if a check shows he or she has no criminal record.

 

Activist: "I said how many times you gonna do that? He said 'Seven.' I said 'What are you gonna do--'"

 

Host: "Seven?"

 

Activist: "Seven times. This is policy. I said 'What do you do on the eighth time?' He said--

 

Host: "Shoot him!"

 

Activist laughs. ROAR FROM THE CROWD.

Wow.

 

Listen yourself here. The radio rebroadcast starts around the 4:30 mark.

 

The host may or may not have been joking. The response from the crowd is what chills my bones.

Well I am hit and miss on the topic of illegal immigration. If America was fed up enough about it there would be something done about it. As it is, their willingness to work for so little helps keep prices down a bit in certain industries.

 

Of course, MY solution for halting illegal immigration involves minefields with pillboxes strategically laid out. If overpopulation is part of the problem down there in number of jobs available, then this ought to go a long way in solving that problem.

 

That is not something I think needs to be done, but if people want it stopped; minefields would be more cost effective than training new border patrol.

 

As far as I am concerned, this isn't as big a deal as people many people make of it.

Minefields? You have got to be kidding...

Minefields and pillboxes. WOW, I would be embarrassed to live in a country that would choose this option.

Minefields and pillboxes. WOW, I would be embarrassed to live in a country that would choose this option.

What's wrong with mining the border? Because it forces people to use legal entry ports? I think Peprock is right on the money. The government of Mexico is no longer a friend. Calderón and his buddy Hugo Chavez preach hatred of America. They actually encourage incursions by Mexicans into the United States. There have even been "invasions" by the Mexican onto U.S. soil.

What's wrong with mining the border? Because it forces people to use legal entry ports? I think Peprock is right on the money. The government of Mexico is no longer a friend. Calderón and his buddy Hugo Chavez preach hatred of America. They actually encourage incursions by Mexicans into the United States. There have even been "invasions" by the Mexican onto U.S. soil.

I don't believe we want to use a method that takes people's lives for the simple act of wanting to move to this country. To me, that seems like an act of a hostile country. A Castro, China, North Korea, Saddam, action.

 

You want to beef up border control, have National Guard continually patrol, etc, I am can see that.

 

But to blow someone up because they are trying to get into this country, I think is a little extreme.

I don't believe we want to use a method that takes people's lives for the simple act of wanting to move to this country. To me, that seems like an act of a hostile country. A Castro, China, North Korea, Saddam, action.

I totally disagree. If someone climbs through my window, he has commited the hostile act. If I shoot him, I am only defending my self, my home and my family. Landmines don't "attack" people. They stop people who are in places they shouldn't be.

I totally disagree. If someone climbs through my window, he has commited the hostile act. If I shoot him, I am only defending my self, my home and my family. Landmines don't "attack" people. They stop people who are in places they shouldn't be.

Climbing in your window and coming across the border is too different things.

 

Someone climbs in my window and I feel an PHYSICAL IMMEDIATE and DIRECT threat.

 

Someone coming across the border DOES NOT provide me or this country with a physical immediate and direct threat.

 

Apples and oranges.

 

Now an army that is coming across the border to physically attack and harm would be different.

 

But the illegal immigrants are not an army poised to inflict bodily harm onto this country.

 

We are going to kill people because they don't have the right paperwork.

 

Yes, it is a problem. Yes, it needs to be addressed. But to kill people, not the country I thought we were.

Minefields? You have got to be kidding...

 

 

Name me a more economical solution. Please.

I don't believe we want to use a method that takes people's lives for the simple act of wanting to move to this country. To me, that seems like an act of a hostile country. A Castro, China, North Korea, Saddam, action.

 

You want to beef up border control, have National Guard continually patrol, etc, I am can see that.

 

But to blow someone up because they are trying to get into this country, I think is a little extreme.

 

 

It wouldn't necessarily blow them up, maiming could occur as well.

Climbing in your window and coming across the border is too different things.

 

Someone climbs in my window and I feel an PHYSICAL IMMEDIATE and DIRECT threat.

 

Someone coming across the border DOES NOT provide me or this country with a physical immediate and direct threat.

 

Apples and oranges.

 

Now an army that is coming across the border to physically attack and harm would be different.

 

But the illegal immigrants are not an army poised to inflict bodily harm onto this country.

 

We are going to kill people because they don't have the right paperwork.

 

Yes, it is a problem. Yes, it needs to be addressed. But to kill people, not the country I thought we were.

 

 

Not much different than killing people on their own land because we wanted it from them.

One of the things people need to take into consideration here is that my "solution" above here is a utilitarian perspective which also assumes that more practical means had been exhausted.

 

Do I WANT that to be the solution? Of course not. Don't get me wrong though, I don't have any qualms about this option were it determined to be the best option.

Climbing in your window and coming across the border is too different things.

 

Someone climbs in my window and I feel an PHYSICAL IMMEDIATE and DIRECT threat.

 

Someone coming across the border DOES NOT provide me or this country with a physical immediate and direct threat.

 

Apples and oranges.

 

Now an army that is coming across the border to physically attack and harm would be different.

 

But the illegal immigrants are not an army poised to inflict bodily harm onto this country.

 

We are going to kill people because they don't have the right paperwork.

 

Yes, it is a problem. Yes, it needs to be addressed. But to kill people, not the country I thought we were.

 

ladiesbballcoach, I agree with you almost all the time. And while I am not saying that immigrants from Mexico form an army, I will say we do not know their intentions, and that is the problem.

 

Al Quida came to this country posing as immigrants and attacked us. Are they an army? I would say they are. What would it take for other terrorist to enter this country from the Mexican border?

 

This is why we need a secure border, not to stop people from coming to America, but to track them and find out their intentions. Will this stop all terrorist from entering our border? No. But it will but in place some form of security, to filter some possible terrorist out.

There is also a surprisingly large criminal element entering the US across the unsecured border. And I'm not talking drug mules.

Name me a more economical solution. Please.

 

Perhaps I am not thinking economically.

 

Perhaps I am thinking of a family, whose students I have taught, that came across the boarder 16 years ago. Dad carried the three year old, Mom carried the two year old. The five year old had to run on his own. He (the five year old) remembers being shot at and trying to stay between each of his parents (holding his younger brothers) while his older sisters ran behind.

 

Perhaps I am thinking of him as he sat in a classroom and learned English. Perhaps I am thinking of him as he graduated high school with honors, one of the smartest and kindest people that I have ever me. Perhaps I am thinking of him as he made the deans list last semester (and every semester) as an engineering student. Perhaps I am thinking of his parents that wanted a better life for their family.

 

Perhaps I don't equate peoples lives with money.