Oil and Illegal Immigrants

A thought struck me today that despite how incredibly different the issues of the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the illegal immigration from the country of Mexico are, they actually have some remarkable similarities.

The situation in the Gulf of Mexico is that there is a pipe at the bottom of the ocean at about a mile deep that is spewing thousands upon thousands of gallons of oil into the the once beautiful and life-teeming Gulf every day. There are two significant problems to solve; how to plug the well and stop the flow, and how to clean up the mess of the oil already in the water. The efforts to clean up the oil in the water are really futile until the flow out of the well is stopped. Until the oil flow is stopped, all the people in the affected area can do is try to mitigate the effects upon the environment and the economy of the area.

Keep in mind, it isn't the fact that it is oil that is the problem. We love oil. We all use oil every day. We need oil. Oil is vital to our economy and our way of life. It isn't even a problem that oil is flowing out of the well. There are dozens of other wells where oil flows every second of every day with no negative effect. The problem is that the oil is flowing out relentlessly, improperly, and in an uncontrolled manner.

Now, as we compare that to the illegal immigration issue, I would like to point out that it isn't the fact that most of the illegal immigrants are from Mexico that is the problem. Personally, I love the fact that we have food, culture, and people from Mexico. They are good, hard-working, family-focused people, and I think they enrich our lives. (I especially love the food!) It is the fact that the flow of the immigrants is uncontrolled, or rather out of control, and improper. It wouldn't matter if instead of being from Mexico they were from England, France, or Canada. If it is out of control and unrelenting, it is a problem. Further, it doesn't matter what we do to try to deal with the illegal immigrants that are already here if we can't "plug the well." We need to stem the uncontrolled, illegal flow of immigrants into the United States and until we do, all we can do is make some efforts at the mitigation of the effect.

My opinion of what to do regarding the millions of illegal immigrants that are already here "in our waters" is still under consideration and development, but what difference does it really make regarding that issue until we can control our borders and stop the flow from the broken well?