Hola, amigos y amigas. Yes, that is about as far as my Spanish gets me (except for the occasional cerveza fría!)  I do have cause to celebrate as my oldest daughter turns 19 (yesterday) and my youngest son turns 13 (today.)

     Although this has been done to death, I will throw in my 2 pesos on the immigration issue. I lived in Phoenix for 5 years and mostly worked in the restaurant business. That means that I worked with many illegals. Call it whatever you want, that last statement is only the truth as I lived it. I know that if you wanted someone to do the dirty work, odds are you were going to find someone who wasn't really worried about tax implications. I did the hiring for a catering service and for the most part the illegal folks were much harder workers and didn't give you a bunch of grief for having to perform hard work. They understood that work needed to be done by whoever was there to do it.

       I think there needs to be better control on the incoming workers, but a fence across the border is an absurd answer. Having visited the borders both north and south, on more than one occasion, and more than one location, the fence is inconceivable. It didn't work well in Berlin, and it sure isn't working over thousands of miles. The ones here, should stay here, and the new ones need to get in line.

      I was a border patrol candidate when I got out of the military, and the border patrol officers deserve more than what they get. The border patrol is not a fool proof system of alien stoppage, nor have they ever really been intended as such. The only way to stop the illegal stampede is by cracking down on the businesses that hire the workers, and in the same breath make sure the workers are getting treated right. Slavery ended in many years ago, but migrant circumstances are sometimes little better. Once the current wave of illegals have been either given papers or deported, the US needs to enforce existing laws. If the worker is here legally, they should have rights as citizens do. If they are illegal, they should be deported and the employers given significant fines.

Rob Britt 2006