[jyl]

The war on illegals is a little bit like the war on drugs.

Cutting off the flow of drugs, or illegal aliens, is very hard. You are struggling with extremely long borders and desperate people.

Cutting off the demand that draws the flow is going to be more effective. Here you are dealing with people who have a lot to lose - especially for the war on illegals, since the demand is US employers who have money to take, businesses to lose, and are downright terrified of even a short jail sentence.

The government needs to develop an effective way to check the names and social security numbers that are submitted with employers' payroll taxes, against actual SSA records. Identities flagged as fraudulent should be checked and employers penalized for employing those persons. Penalties should be severe and, in extreme cases, include criminal penalties for managers and supervisors.

Admittedly, this won't be easy. But I think, in the end, it will be the more effective approach.

Then, if it turns out that some US industries in fact cannot survive without migrant labor (agriculture, let's say), it will be possible to create a legal migrant worker program that is really enforceable. Because we'll be able to distinguish real identities from false ones, we'll be able to administer a legal program.

Right now, the illegal alien issue is a joke. Politicians use it to get voters riled up (on both sides of the issue). But businesses want the labor. And politicians want to please the businesses too. And consumers are happy to consume the goods and services. So the problem never gets solved.

Finally, I think there should be some way to be lenient, or humane if you will, for illegal aliens who were brought here as children, grew up in the US, have been law-abiding and productive, and have played by the rules - even if their parents broke the rules originally. At some point, there just isn't any purpose served by punishing a child for the decades-old sins of the father.