Presidential Debate

There was a debate on ABC last night with both the Republican and Democratic candidates. The debates were back to back. First was the Republicans and then the Democrats.

I watched it on and off while I was watching the playoff games on NBC. I can't imagine that all that many people watched but good for ABC for doing this. They are also going to be shown again on CNN tonight.

On the Republican side I caught the answers to the questions on immigration or more to the point illegal immigrants being in this country. One of the points all the candidates made was that we have to stop the flow of illegals into this country. We need to build a fence. We need to secure our borders to prevent terrorists from getting into the country. Of course all this talk is directed to the border with Mexico. The U.S.-Mexico border is 1969 miles. The U.S.-Canada border is 5526 if you leave out the border between Canada and Alaska the border between the two countries is 3,987.

Now, if one was a terrorists which border would one choose to illegal enter this country. Do we have to think on this one for very long? I hope not. The question should have been asked of each candidate if they see the US building a fence along our entire border with Canada and how much they think that would cost.

What I found interesting is all the answers dealt with only the illegals that were in this country. The policies that should be followed that would some how allow them to become legal citizens.

The only way as I see it to end illegals in this country is to crack down on the businesses that hire them. Arizona passed such a law: The law says any business that knowingly hires a worker who is in the country illegally will have its business license suspended. For a second offense, the business' license could be revoked.

Until a law like this is passed national illegal immigration will continue to be a problem. I'm not sure this is a good idea. The economic repercussions could be huge.
Follow this link for a story from NPR about the law. Here's more on the law from the Tucson Citizen. Here's one final take on the law from a story by Reuters.

One of the things this law will do is to increase the prices of those products in those industries where illegals worked. It will be interesting to see what happens.