Watching a baby crawl across a floor can be an interesting demonstration. Depending on your point of view — baby or parent — the motor skills required to crawl are either rudimentary or sophisticated. Nonetheless, crawling must be mastered before walking or running.

That’s a lesson that can be applied to almost anything. Take illegal immigration, for example.

The solution of how to stem the tide of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. is complex, expensive and will require a collective amount of intestinal fortitude. It means more than just building a really high, really long fence. It’s more complicated than just hiring more Border Patrol agents to fill the shotgun seats. It may take years to formulate a sensible and workable immigration policy.

But just because we don’t have a handle on the larger problem, that doesn’t mean we should abandon fairness and common sense.

Last week, I read a story in the Washington Times about 16 Mexican nationals who are suing a rancher in Arizona for violating their “civil rights.â€