a third option?

Something that has been bothering me about all the rhetoric flying back and forth about the immigration issue. Why are we talking about only 1) deporting illegals or 2) granting the illegals citizenship. I believe there is a third option: work visas. If they have been federal paying income taxes for some time (many claim they have), taxes which we have used in other endeavors, we should allow for these taxes to be used towards the fees required for a worker to pay for a work visa. Another thing we could do is make it easier to companies to sponsor foreign employees (ie, make it cheaper).

All the aforementioned options are moot however, if we do not figure out a way to decrease the time waiting for applications for work visas (or any other visa) enter this country.

The status of these workers, who at times I envy for reasons I won't discuss here, is a secondary topic to the debate really though.

If we have sufficient funding for the US Border Patrol, perhaps a loosening of the requirements to actually become a border patrol agent would help. Making the pay look good compared to a job at the local walmart would be a step in the right direction also. Border Patrol agents should get all the benefits we give to National Guardsmen or other members of the Armed Forces. This includes housing, education, health, and family benifits given to the other forces charged with the safety AND security of the country.

Manpower, be it literally on the border, or reporting to outposts that are controlling unmanned aerial vehicles or aiming the night vision cameras so the patrols that are on the ground know where to aprehend those that are crossing the border illegally. We also need to cut back on spending that goes towards holding the fence jumpers (be they mexican, guatemalan, canadian, cuban, etc) while we figure out where to send them.

We need to send them back over the fence. operating a few C-17's to shuttle people back over the border (the same border they just crossed) will be cheaper than having thousands of immigrants living in prisons on our side of the fence. Let the country that they were trying to leave figure out if they belong there, or somewhere else. It will force our neighbors to patrol their own borders/ports/etc more thoroughly than they do now as well.

That said, I'm going to go see if I can poke Lou Dobbs off the ceiling so I can pull his panties out of of where ever they are bunched on this subject.