Never Mind How They Got Here

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By By Ken Schram

Summary

The issue isn't the 12 million people who are already here illegally, it's the security of the border they crossed.

Story Published: May 1, 2006 at 12:44 PM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 8:25 AM PDT

Never Mind How They Got Here
SEATTLE - Never mind how they got here, or how long they've lived here.

Never mind the work they do, or how much they sacrifice to continue supporting their families.

What do you realistically expect should be done with the estimated 12 million people lumped together and identified as our "immigration problem?"

Do you honestly expect that the government is going to scour the country to hunt every one of them down?

Are they to be rounded up and marched back to the border at the point of a gun?

Not going to happen.

No one - not the president; not the most ultra-conservative right-winger in Congress - no one sees that as even a possibility.

The issue is not the people who are here, it's the security of the border they crossed.

Fix the porous border problem and the question of how to assimilate those 12-million people becomes a lot easier to answer.

Instead of trying to make felons out of undocumented workers and those who would help or hire them, Congress should focus on providing the money to buy and install the technology to control the future flow of people across our borders.

And those who are already here?

They should be given the opportunity to stay.

Want to share your thoughts with Ken Schram? You can e-mail him at kenschram@komo4news.com

And be sure to catch Ken Schram and John Carlson on their new radio show, "THE COMMENTATORS." Airing Monday through Friday, from 10 till noon on KOMO 1000, Ken and John will be delving into news of the day offering their own particular brand of insight and perspective - with a healthy dose of irreverence and humor thrown in for good measure.