What can we do?

This Republican intiative is, to say the least, is "OFF THE WALL." Of course it is politically driven. Hispanics achieving citizenship end up voting Democratic more often than not.

The political status as this is written is that a bill has passed the House of Representatives that would build hundreds of miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, require that businesses verify the legality of all employees' status through a national database, fortify border patrols, and declare illegal immigrants and those who help them to be felons.

The Senate failed to pass a bill before recess. Meanwhile a half million demonstrators, mostly hispanic, protested the proposal and may yet affect its final form. At the same time, several opinion polls of the American electorate show various degrees of support for controlling immigration.

This issue would not be in the RoadtoPeace purview were it not for the facts that

• restricting immigration restricts the very source of industrious people who made this country great, and
• hispanic immigrants in particular fill jobs on farms and other minimum-wage sectors of the US economy that few American citizens want.

Of course immigration is not quite that simple. Nor is it possible to list all pros and cons, give each its proper weight, and come to a logical and objective opinion. However, what we can do is try to analyse how each of the four elements in the house bill resonate with our goal of world peace.

Event	Probable outcome
Barricade Borders	Tends to isolate US when engagement is needed.
Businesses verify emoloyee citizenry	Added costs of doing business decreases competitiveness of nation.
Fortify Border Patrols	Increases isolation of US instead of encouraging engagement.
Make Border Crossings, and aiding and abetting same, Felonies.	Penalty does not seem to fit the deed when US has, in fact, benefitted so marvelously from immigration.

Immigration has a long-term cure: equalize opportunities across all world societies. This would cure cross-border immigration and revert it to its natural two-way flow. In other words, internationalize democracy. We need to get on with it.