In President Bush’s State of the Union address (January 23rd, 2007), he said that
“ We cannot fully secure the border unless we take pressure off the border – and that requires a temporary worker program. We should establish a legal and orderly path for foreign workers to enter our country to work on a temporary basis. As a result, they won’t have to try to sneak in – and that will leave border agents free to chase down drug smugglers, and criminals, and terrorists.”
Notice Bush says if we have a “temporary” worker program “they won’t have to try to sneak in” implying that currently they have to come to the U.S. , so they might as well be legalized.
I’ve seen a similar argument in the Mexican media, where I’ve read that if Mexican border crossers are stopped in one part of the border they “are obliged” to cross in another.
It’s based on the idea that in Mexico, x amount of the population will enter the U.S.A. willy-nilly, so if we’d just let in more people, there wouldn’t be a problem with illegal immigration.
The amount of people in Mexico who go to the U.S. is not a fixed quantity. As more and more Mexicans emigrate, their friends and relatives are encouraged to emigrate also .
The reality is, the amount of people who enter our country depends on us, not them. The means to control immigration exist, it’s just that our leaders don’t want to control it.