http://dallasmorningviews.beloblog.com/

Bill:

Mike, here's the thing about the City Journal piece. Yes, we need more skilled immigrants, and that can happen by pressing for more high-tech visas. As you recall, that was a big issue for Congress and the Richardson tech corridor a few years ago.

Hmm. I got an e-mail today from a friend in the tech world. He writes that some things have been going down in his workplace that have him searching for another job:

Among other things, what we're seeing is that my company would rather fly developers in from Asia to do customer implementations in the United States rather than using their U.S.-based staff to do it. So now, not only do we have a preponderance of development work being done by a U.S. company's offices in Asia, we have a lot of H1B workers at U.S. offices, and, finally, foreign workers being flown in from halfway around the planet to do things the local staff is capable of doing. This sounds like a form of colonialism.

The day we start outsourcing journalism jobs to India, Bangladesh and other places is the day this issue becomes a Crisis.

Bill:

Somehow, we have to deal with those 12 million, many of whom are from Mexico and who have put down roots. We can't ignore they don't exist.

Ditto for the estimated 500,000 who come here illegally each year. People may not want them coming, but they are coming. That too is an inescapable fact.

You act like we have no control over this. We do. We could build a big fence. We just don't have the political will.