This is fascinating reading guys- again I am amazed that it takes a horse-racing board to get people on all sides of the political spectrum debating an issue together. Much as I love political blogs, people tend to keep to their own kind on them.
I missed the beginning of the discussion on immigration, but in the last two pages, anyway, I notice no one discusses the economic incentive provided by businesses to illegal immigrants. They come because there is work here. It seems to me it would be much less expensive from a taxation standpoint to, rather than spend lots of money securing the border (which I doubt would work- we've got a reeeeaaaaalllllly big border and the cost of fully maintaining it, or, god forbid, building a wall would be astronomical), instead go after the companies and people that hire illegal immigrants. Fine the daylights out of them, put them in jail, do whatever it takes to make it too much of a financial or personal risk to hire illegal immigrants. Then the jobs available to illegal immigrants will dry up, and so will the illegal immigration.
The consequences, of course, is that we'll be paying $10.00 for a pint of strawberries, and a lot more for a pound of beef (I have no idea what beef costs these days since I don't buy it) since the advantage to businesses of illegal immigrants is cheap labor, which is reflected in the price we pay for goods. So, the question to ask yourself is, are you willing to pay that much more for your food? Which will cost you more money- supporting illegal immigrants or paying the real cost of producing food?
I don't know what the answer is- I don't know what the answer is for myself, frankly. But I don't see why, if we're serious about illegal immigration, we don't go after the cause of it, and that's available jobs provided by businesses that hire illegal immigrants.