I am speaking of course of the latest hare-brained solution to the “immigration problem” from that august group of brainiacs, the US Senate: a triple-layered wall over part of the 2000-mile Mexican border.
The Senate, in its efforts to address an election-year pseudo-problem, voted, 83-16, to erect the wall at strategic points along our southern border, and to install 500 miles of vehicle barriers to keep campesinos from driving into our fair nation.
The House for its part wants to erect about 700 miles of barriers along the border.
This while sections of the interstate highway system develop potholes large enough to swallow small cars, and bridges near the point of collapse. This while the war in Iraq sucks huge sums of money from the Treasury.
The whole immigration crisis is just an election-year ploy to distract the public from the issues that really matter. Rattling immigrants’ cages gets them out into the streets, providing yet more distractions, and puts everyone on the defensive. Meanwhile, Pres. George W. Bush manages to walk a fine line between anti-immigration extremists on the one hand and more laissez-faire supporters down in his neck of the woods on the other.
Immigrants, illegal or otherwise, have been a segment of the US population for years. Whether they constitute a larger proportion of the population than before is a debatable point. Trying to erect a wall to keep them out is pointless and a waste of money.
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