Clearly, immigration has become “the” topic all of a sudden. For example, my piece in the paper yesterday and the discussion as identified by Scott Gosnell (who links to several other recent posts on the subject elsewhere).

Via Reuters: Bush to tackle immigration on Mexican border - Yahoo! News

Fueled by fears of terrorists slipping into the country, escalating violence and drug smuggling, Americans have become increasingly worried about illegal immigration. More than three-quarters think the government is not doing enough to control the borders, according to a CBS News poll last month.

Given that the 911 terrorists all came into the country legally, I am not sure that this is as big a concern as people make it out to be. Even if we sealed off Mexico with a 500 foot high concrete wall, it isn’t as if terrorists couldn’t get into the country. I am sympathetic to the concern, but it strikes me as really a non-issue. If al Qaeda wants to get into the US, it doesn’t need to go through Mexico.

And, at least in a general sense, I support the idea of a guest worker program.

In Tucson, Arizona, on Monday and El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday, Bush will focus on border security, portraying his temporary worker program — which some Republicans say rewards lawbreakers — as a way to relieve pressure on enforcement by bringing illegal immigrants “out of the shadows.”

It seems to me that it would help funnel the economic supply and demand issues with the proper incentive structure and would allow for more control of flow.

Of course no system will utterly eliminate illegal aliens entering the US from the South and a guest worker program beats building a wall.