The illegal immigration debate is all academic

Immigration (illegal and legal) has been on the news a lot lately. New bills are being introduced at Federal and State levels, it seems, every week.

The solutions introduced by these bills range from cold war era wall building to xenophobic, oppressive and inhumane to kumbaya-like let's all have a hug type of programs.

The more viable solutions seem to have two things in common, more or less. They all suggest a guest worker program of some sorts either with amnesty for illegal immigrants currently in the country or not. All of them also suggest we shut down the flow of illegal immigrants by increasing border security.

All of that stuff is academic. Sure, a law or two might get passed, but there is absolutely no way they'll get effectively enforced. Here's why.

A guest worker program of some sort would sic millions of temporary guest worker applications onto the USCIS. The backlogs created by those applications would make the current backlogs dwarf in comparison. The processing of those applications will take forever. What would be the incentive for an illegal immigrant already in the country to apply for one, if the application processing time was 2 years, and there's a chance it would be denied resulting in immediate deportation? The guest worker program would only be benefitial for people still outside of the United States and would do nothing or very little to address the problem of illegal immigrants already in the country.

Securing the US borders is another academic debate. Sounds like a great idea, but who's paying for it? The current administration is more interested in spending their money on fighting the global war on terror/islamic radicalism/whatever than addressing domestic problems such as healthcare, social security, education, homeland security or disaster recovery. There's a reason why groups like the Minutemen, however despicable they may be, exist.

Both of these initiatives will fail because of lack of resources. That's a given considering the priorities of the current administration.

-TPP