One of the proposals to keep illegal immigrants out is a very big wall. The very big wall will stretch from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, at a minimum cost of $8 million.

The positive aspects of this wall will be putting to use the surplus of portable airplane tarmac to build the wall and the creation of numerous temporary migratory jobs (provided they aren’t given to illegal immigrants). The wall will also stand as a symbol that America means business when it comes to immigration.

The negative aspects of the wall will be that America will anger Mexico with this symbolic gesture. Vincent Fox, president of Mexico, personally felt the wall is discriminatory and a barrier to freedom.

The wall will not be effective. The border is too large to patrol and if the new wall looks anything like the wall in place in San Diego, I could probably climb over it myself. The wall should only be seen as symbolic.

The Great Wall of China is what a wall should look like if it is to properly keep people out; however, even that wall couldn’t hold back nomadic Mongolians. A makeshift wall of old airport tarmac cannot contain 21st-century Mexicans.

Americans should ask themselves if this problem warrants mimicking one of the Seven Wonders of the World to solve. The effectiveness of such a wall would only be symbolic; people who say otherwise have never jumped a tall chain-link fence to access a public swimming pools.

The key to illegal immigration is control. With an expanded seasonal workers program a person could enter the U.S. whenever there is a call for cheap labor. It is always the case that demand equals supply. Employers then wouldn’t be in an all or nothing situation with illegal workers, because if you hire one illegal immigrant, you might as well hire three or four.

We could get a better idea of how many illegal immigrants we have/had coming in and enlist harsh penalties against those that don’t cooperate. Trying to stop illegal immigration from Mexico is like spitting back at rain. We should allow people to travel to work in America. Make it easy to travel back and forth over the boarder. Immigrants will come to America — whether we want them to or not and even if we can’t accept any more immigrants.

We will be in a better position to deny them entry, and they will have a harder time coming in illegally, because the human trafficking networks will be crippled. The key is when something pushes you, to regain control you must pull them. Control of our borders is more important than waves of people looking for work. If control of our borders means letting masses of people come over to work, then so be it. But a wall is only symbolic of our ignorance.

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