http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/news/opini ... 05b4_edits

Friday, November 4, 2005
Our Opinion: Policies show D.C.'s warped border views

OK, let's go through this once more:

It is physically impossible to seal the U.S.-Mexico border. It will take economic changes – as well as law enforcement – to keep people from entering this country illegally.

That message is easily understood here, in southern Arizona. But it apparently still hasn't been received in Washington, D.C., where there are renewed promises to "gain control" of the border with an infusion of new Border Patrol agents.

We've heard this before – many, many times. Agents have been added by the thousands. It doesn't work. Those determined to enter the United States illegally simply shift their crossing efforts to other parts of the border where enforcement is not so tight.

In a speech this week, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff vowed to "gain control" of U.S. borders by adding 1,500 Border Patrol agents to the current force of 11,000.

In the meantime, Bush administration officials said a guest worker proposal would not be considered until next year.

This illustrates a basic misunderstanding of the problems of the border and the best way to effectively address them.

As Chertoff was promoting his get-tough approach, a chile farmer in southeastern Arizona was giving a reporter for The Arizona Republic a far more realistic perspective of the border.

The farmer, Ed Curry, said he was three weeks behind in harvesting his crop. Like scores of his colleagues, Curry is confronting the worst worker shortage in recent memory because of the crackdown on illegal immigrants entering Arizona.

Curry said he would like to hire legal workers, but he can't find any. And with Border Patrol agents arresting the illegal immigrants who are willing to work for him, his crop is going bad.

So is this an indication that increased enforcement is keeping illegal immigrants out of the United States? That's impossible to say. But an estimated 8 million to 10 million illegal immigrants are in the country, and the number grows each year.

Between 1999 and 2004, the number of agents in the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol increased by 56 percent, while the number of arrests increased by 4 percent.

We simply can't stop people from trying to enter the country by adding agents without addressing the economic reality: People south of the border want to work, and people on this side of the border need workers and are willing to pay for them.

Until that law of supply and demand is understood and addressed in Washington, immigration reform will not happen.