Usually I find at least something to like about Charles Krauthammer’s columns. Not so today, as Krauthammer joins the immigration bill debate. His column, "First a Wall - Then Amnesty", is just another voice added to the cacophony straining against reality.
First, he wants a wall strung along the border with Mexico. (The example of the Israeli and Korean borders, both essentially war zones, is completely nonsensical as a comparison.) Okay, not necessarily a wall, but at least a double fence. Next, he thinks we should grant amnesty to illegal immigrants, but only after they have gone back to their home country and then make a perfunctory stop through a border checkpoint.
I’ve let this post sit as a draft for too many days to remember the whole of what he said without re-reading the column, which I have no intention of doing right this minute. Suffice to say I think these are bad ideas and they do nothing to address the root problems. We need to find new ways of better assimilating immigrants, to address the reasons so many “illegals” cross into the borders every day, and focus our domestic (ahem, “homeland”) security priorities on critical matters, such as reforming air travel security and weapons proliferation, not build a wall.
Good fences make good neighbors? Hardly.