"Build that fence!...More border patrol!"

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In my opinion, this is absolute nonsense. Of course we need to secure the border but we need to focus on those who create the problem and that is those who provide the jobs.

No way will pouring millions of our tax dollars into a fence or more border patrol stop the symptom.
We need to go to the source.
Illegal hiring causes illegal immigration.

Our main focus should be:

1. Examine our government's relationship with the Mexican government and how that "relationship" adds to the problem.

2. Go after those, swiftly and harshly, that create the draw by hiring them.

Until these two are addressed, I believe every other "solution" is expensive window dressing that causes more damage than good.

You could build a wall along the Mexican border and as long as jobs are available workers will find a way to get here. Cuba is a great example of what people will do to get out of hardship. If 90 miles of ocean doesn't stop Cubans from getting to America, how is a 3 foot wide wall going to stop anyone?

to a lot of people at DU and elsewhere. The Chinese believed in it, the East Germans believed in it. A "wall" will protect you from the evils in the big, bad world out there. That way you don't have to do anything to change the root cause of the problem, just build a wall and you can keep the problem at bay for a while.

A wall stops no humans and harms everything.

Good point. Nature doesn't recognize borders.

As I have said to anyone who'll listen, this wall idea is an 11th century solution to a 21st century problem. It will cost tons to build, both in time and money, and will only succeed in upping the amount of illegal entries into the country by air and water.

I agree with your two points whole heartedly.

As for securing the border, I read something recently that claimed it is actually better to have a relatively open border. The harder we make it to get into the country, the more likely it is that, once someone makes it across, they will stay. This creates a permanent illegal immigrant population such as we have developed since the 1986 bill was passed tightening the borders. When borders are easier to cross, people come here and work for awhile and then go home.