This article is great and really drives it home. You always hear stories about the people trying to come here and change their lives, but you never hear about how it's affecting Americans who already live here:

"In Cochise County, rancher John Ladd fights to keep what he owns. With 10 1/2 miles of land abutting the Mexican line, he watches the border war every day through his living room window.

In the early 2000s, the Border Patrol averaged 350 arrests every 24 hours on his property, including 700 in a single night. One morning Ladd walked into his living room and found a Oaxacan Indian girl on his couch. She'd walked in his front door and gone to sleep.

Last month a delegation of congressmen came to Ladd's ranch for an up-close look at his nightmare. They saw Border Patrol lights that don't work and cameras that are frequently broken for lack of a $15 circuit board that keeps blowing.

The agency used to keep a supply on hand, but a Border Patrol official told them they couldn't do that anymore, and must buy them as needed. This takes weeks, so cameras sit idle.

How can a bureaucracy that can't change a light bulb — so to speak — run a massive guest-worker program?

It gets worse. Along wide stretches of Ladd's land, the international fence is simply gone, either washed out by floods or cut down by invaders. The congressmen stared slack-jawed at the site.

It mostly makes Ladd angry, because the Swiss-cheese barrier allows Mexican and American livestock to mingle as never before, and that means they can spread disease that could put him out of business.

A migrant beginning in Brazil, where foot-and-mouth disease is active and spreading, can arrive at Ladd's fence in two days. If he's carrying a meat snack that harbors the highly contagious and destructive FM virus, Ladd could be finished.

This scenario would affect much more than the livelihood of this one rancher. If the wrong disease migrates north, either accidentally or through bio-terrorism, the whole country stands to suffer. An FM outbreak, for example, would require the overnight shutdown of America's beef export market, which has the potential to cause an economic and social catastrophe."

You can read the whole article here:

http://www.nationalreview.com/commen...0603300723.asp

I keep hearing people defend illegal immigration or pretend there's nothing we can do about it - but their arguments alway sound hollow. It's like they really just don't want to even try. I just don't get it. We can have a legal system that lets people come here - then we can control it, let in people who deserve to come (educated people, people who are being persecuted in other countries, etc.). We can control how many people immigrate. What is the point in allowing so much illegal immigration to happen? Frankly, it's the reason that our legal immigration is so restricted.

I have one opinion on the matter. There would easily be enough jobs for Mexicans in Mexico if the .5 percent of wealthy fascist Mexicans didn't control 98 percent of the wealth.

aww how sad his10 mile property is getting ruined all because of some lazy unworthy illegal animals. Yeah those people have less than 1 mile of property back at home and no jobs and die in the dessert trying to come...but Ladd's property is WAAYY to important. Right?? A piece of land is worth more than a human soul???<<yep i guess thats what the "American Dream" has taught us. And we wonder why the rest of the world sees us as as ignorant selfish Americans...

You are an idiot! This country is the third largest that imports immigrants. Don't you dare call Americans selfish. We have a way for immigrants to come here legally and that is the only way they should come here. Why don't they fix their own countries? Don't tell me about humanitarism either. How humane are these illegals being to American citizens who have to foot the bill for their health, education and welfare? How humane are these illegals being to Americans who have to put up with this massive population growth and all the negatives attributed to that? Don't even go there! These illegals are nothing but law braking cowards.

This freedom guy sounds so completely "in the box." He goes on and on about the righteousness of being humane and I agree its a noble cause. However, he doesn't seem to realize that those short lived, temporary increases of humane acts he is perpetrating do far more harm to the world then they do good. Hey freedom, do you not understand that without some level of inforced order the world would be a far worser place? You want anarchy? This would mean no police to protect your family from being murdered or your wife from being raped while your off at your job! The point is the world is much better WITH order. The order of our American gov't may not be perfect, in fact I feel most of the time that it is pure shit, especially since Bush took office. However, I feel it is a lot more effecient than most gov'ts, and certainly your worthless mexican gov't. It is not a crime for a human being to want a better existence. It is however, most certainly a crime for a human to STEAL from other humans to provide themself with a better existence. Where do you get this attitude that it is a human beings responsiblity to give 2 shits about the other people in this world. Even if God himself, according to YOUR SELF CHOSEN SUBSCRIPTIONS OF MORALITY felt that this is the way it is supposed to be, the bottom line is that that is not how our world is. It is a giant rat race. Everyone wants a better life. And unless you think tomorrow everyone is going to put down their sticks and stones and start hugging each other, your approach to this problem is in no way a healthy solution. And as long as the rest of the world acknowledges this REALITY of the human condition, what makes you think that these illegals are ENTITLED to getting away with breaking the laws because of their unfortunate situation when no one else is allowed to? For the most part, the western world we have at least fascilitates the capability for people to build their own world the way they want it. This is what we have in America. It seems you want American status for all these illegals, and yet none of them are acting like Americans. To be American means to be bound to certain laws governing our behaviour. If all theses illegals are ignoring these laws, then they certainly aren't worthy of being Americans' with American rights and priveledges. We put CRIMINALS in prison here in America. That is our policy. 300 MILLION people here seem to understand this concept and are playing by the rules established. You think were going to insult all of those ppl who are playing by the rules and paying taxes to support them just to appease 1 million criminals? Grow up dude! This is why we have laws governing our human activities. Without order we have chaos. There is nothing humane about a world of anarchy. At least we are trying to create a better place.
When you say things like we americans believe that, "a piece of land is worth more than a human soul," you demonstrate your total lack of imagination. That was not at all what someGOPguy was saying. Hello... he was saying that saving ONE soul is not NEARLY AS IMPORTANT AS SAVING AN ENTIRE NATION OF SOULS! There is no point in bringing all your illegal butts over here for oppurtunity if by doing so you've destroyed the economy! There goes your oppurtunity. In otherwords, (as I explain this to you like your 6 years old,) the illegals will have in essence wasted thier time, and at the same time, made life WORSE for 300 MILLION OTHER PEOPLE! Now tell us please, how in the world is there anything humane about that? Especially considering just because a person is born doesn't mean that they are entitled to happiness and comfort. My god, there are plenty of nations on this earth with populations of ppl FAR LARGER THAN THE MEXICAN POPULATION who have a mere fraction of what even the mexicans have. I dont see them acting as selfishly, invading thier nieghboring countries screwing up the economies and stability of the lives of the people in them. You want to do something humane for the world, commit suicide. And have your nation sterilized so that they can no longer breed while they lack an economy to sustain their offspring. Your weak. You dont want to do whats right. You just want to have someone else take care of you while threating their own well being. There is nothing humane about taking the easy way out.