There's a lot to do in addressing this issue, beginning with repealing or revising the 14th Amendment. That's a tall order in and of itself, as we all know.
Then there's the matter of enforcing the current laws, which the federal government has shown it does not want to do.
Physical enforcement of our borders via fences and other barriers is a never-ending game of cat and mouse and the mice usually wind up the victors. The best we could do is slow down the level of encroachment and invasion.
Severely penalizing those who employ illegals is also a double-edged sword. Many small businesses would go under if they were to adhere 100% to the law. And while that isn't quite as huge a deal as some of the other issues are, this aspect does have an impact in the political arena.
Ultimately, the every-20-year-throw-some-money-at-the-problem approach that has been done by the appropriate president and Congress then in office, including Reagan and Bush II, has not addressed the problem. Establishing quotas of legal immigration (done in the earlier part of the 20th Century) had an impact, but certainly did not stem the tide.
Ultimately, a pragmatic, consensual approach is going to have to be adopted to deal with the issue -- or not.
I fear that little or nothing will be done about the problem until a nuke is smuggled in by a terrorist and detonated in D.C. or some other garden spot, laying waste to dozens to square miles and killing tens of thousands of people. And even then, we Americans have a short, short memory.
In short, we're screwed. Our country does not have the political will to address this issue in even a consensual way/politically correct way. Whatever is done, if anything at all is done, will be half-assed and ineffective and expensive, because the politicians will make sure that the status quo is not affected in any way.
Kicking the can down the road is what politicians do these days. Good God, they can't even pass a budget, which is a constitutional REQUIREMENT.
I'd love to throw every one of the rat bastards out -- especially the freakin' leadership. Boehner, Reid, Pelousy, they've ALL got to go. And that is definitely not a pragmatic approach, but it's the one that my fingers are typing right now.
