The ideals behind NAFTA was to illimate trade barriers and to gradually transform North America into a single economic unit. This logic will will eventually lead to an EU style set up in North America.
Since we apparently lack the political will to secure borders. Perhaps it is time to accelerate the process and start thinking of an open border. The problem with this current immigration law is that we end up filtering out those immigrants who respect laws to the extent that they would not break laws to enter a country.
While we are so caught up in being fair to the people who only obey rules they find convenient that we become horrifically unfair to the people who obey laws, period.
The issue I have not heard discussed in the current immigration debate the extent of the demand for future immigration. If we have open borders, are we looking at just a paltry 20 or 30 million more people wanting to immigrate to the US or are we looking at serious numbers like 100 million plus?
The current nondecision that affectively grants amnesty to the current batch of 12 million undocumented immigrants has already dictated that we will have 12 million more undocumented in the next decade. Having failed to address the current crisis, the next round of immigration reform talks really should begin with a discussion of the total demand for immigration. It is entirely possible that the US has already experienced the brunt of the demand for immigration with the current 12 million illegals plus the 10 or so million that will follow in wake of today's protests. If that is the case, then perhaps it is time to return to the ideals of open borders?
The worst of all worlds, however, is this status quo that punishes people for abiding by laws.
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