Let me start by saying this is really two separate issues - Immigration and Border Security and as such I will handle them separately.

Immigration

Building walls or fences has never been an effective means of controlling the flow of people from one country to another. Walls and fences are just a band-aid to a more substantive underlying problem. You have to ask yourself, Why do Mexican citizens want to cross a border with guards, dogs, guns, fences and a mote, then cross several miles of desert, usually at night when things like snakes or other obstacles cannot be seen? They want a better life for themselves and their family. I cannot fault them for that, I want the same thing. That is not the problem. Let's look at the other side of the equation.

If Mexican and other South American Nationals were unsuccessful in their quest for a better life by crossing the border, would they keep doing it? I do not think so. So what we need to look at is why they are successful and fix that problem. What it all boils down to is that rich people need slaves. Since that is illegal in this country they are looking to get as close to slave labor as they can. Most organizations that hire illegals could pay more to US citizens and give them a standard of living that they would be happy with. But this would mean less profit for the owner(s). So instead they hire illegals who cannot complain about bad working conditions, low (or no) pay and a variety of other forms of abuse.

So what is the solution? It is 3 fold :

1. Change the dynamics of the situation. Allow any South American citizen who wants to cross the border with a work visa provided they can secure a job within a stated period of time and give all workers regardless of their status in the country the right to report violations to their workers rights.
2. Prosecute the businesses that violate workers rights or that hire workers that did not come into the country through the border check points.
3. Invest in Mexico - we currently are exporting thousands of jobs to China and India because we can get the jobs done there for less. Why not build these factories and service industries in Mexico? Reduce the incentive to cross the border.

Border Security

While I do believe there is a need for border security. I think the reasons behind it have been wrapped in a veil of mis-information. I would like to see our security checkpoint at the Panama Canal. It is a smaller frontier to cover with a natural barrier. We should be protecting North America in partnership with Canada and Mexico. I personally would like to know that Mexico is part of the American Defense Plan for Terrorists since SCUD missiles from the Mexican desert could reach a large section of the United States.

But let's get real here, on 911 all but 14 military jets were re tasked out of the Continental United States. These 14 jets were protecting the entire United States. The F-16's that would have been closest to the action were sent on a training mission in North Carolina just before the attack. Terrorists from Afghanistan do not have the capability to do this. If they did we would already be learning Arabic. When we talk about border security, first we must properly identify who the threat is. Right now our border with Mexico is secure because we have a Thousand poor Mexican and South American Nationals on that border who do not want their path to a better life closed.