Sincere sympathy for this woman. I wish they could all be like her. But here's the thing: Masses of Mexicans and others ARE COMING. This is GOING to happen. (And we, the middle-aged, will need their labor.)

Of course politicians are going to pander to them. Of course they are. I don't even mean this to be all that cynical: That's the business politicians are in.

I often think the world's best Asians are Americans, and it's been that way for some time. We're glad this woman is here, and we're glad she came the way she did. She's modern and decent in ways that transcend centuries and continents.

But given our needs for labor, we were always going to have to deal with this.

Listen, please, read this and know it to be true: Civilization and modernity will always have as their core project the absorption of populations not yet included.

(This is why folks who say 'America isn't the world's policemen!' seem like ninnies. History doesn't let the best people stay home and watch daytime television.)

I was listening to radio talk show the other day and one of the senators was saying that a problem with the immigration bill was that it granted "a path to citizenship" to illegals.

He was against "a path to citizenship" for illegals, even after we secure the border. He repeated the "no path to citizenship" mantra about 15 times in a 10 minute interview.

No matter what we need to secure the border.

But we have at least 10 million illegals in the country. Some of them for years, including those brought in as children. They aren't going to self-deport. So are we going to have a permanent underclass?

I'm not sure of the answer -- but it will have to be addressed.

Deportation, Jim P. That's the answer. No other country in the world would care that I was brought over as a baby. Or that I had gotten away with living here illegally for years.

Needing their labor isn't an impressive argument to me. I'm pretty sure getting teens back into working instead of web surfing would be an improvement to society.

Demography isn't argument.

Deportation, Jim P. That's the answer. No other country in the world would care that I was brought over as a baby. Or that I had gotten away with living here illegally for years. -- momof4 at April 7, 2013 6:31 PM

You are correct on strictly legal and technical terms. Let's deport them all. There are more than 10 million illegal immigrants. So figure 50 illegals per bus. I'll get the 200,000 buses that are 1,700 miles long nose to tail. You can gather up every illegal. And every single person in the U.S. has to show up at a checkpoint with a birth certificate. I'm sure that will go over well. I haven't seen my birth certificate from at least the ninety's if the eighties.

Now let's get in a little touch of reality.

There are illegal children that have been here for 30+ years. The are illegals that came across the border to work in the 80's and 90's and never left. They have never caused a problem, other than not having papers.

So now let's shut down the border and send them back. That isn't even getting into the question of Coptic Christians and others that would qualify like the Irish from the Troubles of 70's? Would you deport them to Mexico? I'd love to see that diplomatic fiasco. What about any that need to be flown? Or do we collect them long enough until we can send them back in the hold of a boat to Jamaica?

On reason.com, they have pointed out that the illegal population in the U.S. increased because of enhanced border controls. Workers who used to work seasonally and then go home moved their families to the U.S. when we tightened the border crossing. The law of unintended consequences at play.

What about the results of "Operation wetback" during Eisenhower? The capacity is there. Kennedy, and, especially, Johnson were later beholden to labor unions, who wanted no guest workers who were not about to become union members, so the whole operation stopped.

Stinky and Astra sort of provide a solution, but don't answer the 1,700 miles of buses.

You HAVE a permanent underclass: the little brown people, who, like blacks, will be pandered to just to gather their vote.

Meanwhile... JimP, the miles of buses is a magnificent distraction and wholly fallacious.
Because a bus can be used more than once.

Meanwhile... JimP, the miles of buses is a magnificent distraction and wholly fallacious. Because a bus can be used more than once. -- Radwaste at April 9, 2013 5:26 AM

From Hotair per the LA times:

According to internal reports, Border Patrol agents used the airborne radar to help find and detain 1,874 people in the Sonora Desert between Oct. 1 and Jan. 17. But the radar system spotted an additional 1,962 people in the same area who evaded arrest and disappeared into the United States.

So currently we have about a 1:1.1 invasion rate.

So lets only use 170 buses at a time. That would be about 8,500. But of course every single one of them wouldn't get off the bus in Mexico City and never find a coyote to take them back to the U.S. which has a less than 50% of stopping a new illegal immigration.