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From Slashdot | Work Resumes On Virtual Fence With Mexico

Re:It must be just me… (Score:5, Insightful)

by swillden (191260) <shawn-ds@willden.org> on Saturday May 09, @11:07PM (#27893583)
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Nonetheless, there are plenty of otherwise necessary rules that give some people hard times, and we can’t just have people doing as they please legal or not because of it.

There’s an ancient military aphorism taught to all soon-to-be-commissioned officers: “Never give an order that you know will not be obeyed.” Giving orders that won’t be obeyed accomplishes nothing and undermines the officer’s authority. Having ignored one command, it becomes easier for the soldiers to ignore others.

That maxim has a clear corollary in lawmaking: “Never pass a law that huge numbers of people will break”. Passing such laws does little or nothing to change human behavior, but does a great deal to undermine the rule of law.

Given that there are large numbers of people who are willing to take tremendous risks to come to the US and work, and there is no shortage of Americans willing to employ them, setting immigration quotas too low is simply stupidity on the part of our immigration system. It makes no sense to blame the illegals, who are just trying to make a living. It makes some sense to blame their employers, but unless there are plenty of Americans clamoring for the jobs being filled by illegals (and, by and large, there *aren’t*. Illegals mostly do work that no one else wants to) then even that is silly.

No, in this situation the problem is the law.

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