In our family, we are rockhounds. This, we believe, started over a century ago, when one ancestor, namely a James Woodford, immigrated from England, with a degree no less, in geology from the great institution of Oxford. He surveyed and then farmed on the side, but passed his fascination with rocks onto the rest of us.

We have spent many of our own weekend trips recently, collecting numerous mineral samples, small and large, from our home state. We carry home boulders and tiny fragments, all with the thinking they will be a "gem".

Upon getting home, we begin sorting through our burgeoning collection. We sort, and begin a process of washing the rocks, in order to find out what we really took home.

Most times our rockhounding happens by waning light, at the end of long drives. So many times, more than not, we find out, that in our haste, we have taken home useless rocks that have no specimen value, let alone being of gem quality. This happens in the light of our front room window, where beyond the dirt, we can see that most rocks are, well, just rocks. Rarely do we find something worth really keeping. We force ourselves to part with these wanna-be gems to our garden bed, where they seem to belong.

I can say I felt this was similar to illegal immigration. By the dark, shadowy light of our lax border security, we seem to collect humans, we did not intend to. They seem to litter our country, as those rocks do my living room, and take up valuable space, time and resources to house them. They beg to stay, pretending to be "gems" and have some in this country, mesmerized by their false pretentions of being something we truly need.

We need to wash off the dirt on these psuedo-gems, show them for who they really are, and relegate them to their own countries, where they belong, as those rocks have been moved out to my garden.

It is all too easy as a nation, as my own kids are just as guilty of with rocks, to collect far too many humans than we need. I have had to be the decider with my kids, as to what goes, and what can and should stay. The question I ask my kids is this, "is it actually something that can be made into something else, or is it just a rock that tries to look nice, but has no value to us?"

We Americans need to ask ourselves the same question about illegal immigrants. Are they "gem quality" or are they psuedo, wanna-be gems, pretending on the outside to look good? Their initial illegal entry into our country should be an indicator they are not "gem" quality.