Inevitability !

It seems to most people that the " bleeding obvious " seems to escape the nation's leaders in the United States of America.    Tackling the fiscal deficit is really a no brainer.    They need to raise income and decrease spending, but one side of politics refuses to even think of tax increases - and the other refuses any sort of entitlement reform.

The other great American problem is the huge quantity of undocumented people who have managed to cross the country's borders and are living a shadow existence within  the communities.   In many cases, the original entrants have lived most of their life in the United States and have produced children born on American soil - and these now have produced grand children.

The numbers are staggering   One in every twenty-nine people living in America is an undocumented illegal immigrant.   In good times they are welcome, because they do the low paid jobs Americans shun, and there are just too many of them to ever force them back over the nation's borders.

It seems to be time for a reality check.  American shares a common border with Mexico, a country with a lower standard of living and a huge population.   At the same time, America is the " El Dorado " in the dreams of the world's poor and oppressed.  Millions poured through Ellis island in the early years when the aim was to populate an empty land.

Technology has advanced to the stage where it is possible to implement personal identification that relates to either the DNA or unique fingerprints or eye retina of each person.   The only way the US will solve it's problem with illegals is to bring them into the open and offer a new deal.   Permanent residence leading to citizenship in exchange for learning the English language, paying taxes and obeying the laws of the country.

At the same time, it will be necessary to ensure that this amnesty does not simply deliver a new wave of undocumented illegals and that will require the implementation of a national ID system that makes living in the country illegally virtually impossible.   It would need draconian penalties for those who employ an illegal or provide any sort of accommodation, or offer services such as banking, transport or shelter.    It has been proven that border security is impossible to fully implement.   The impetus needs to change to detecting new arrivals and removing them - before they put down roots !

It is too late to even think of removing all those already in place.   Children born on American soil already have citizenship rights and it would be a logical extension to include their parents in any new deal. The natural exclusions would be those who have an extensive criminal record, but the addition to the tax base of one in twenty-nine citizens would certainly improve national finances.

We have undocumented illegals here in Australia too, but the numbers are minuscule compared to America. Fortunately we do not share a land border with any other country.  The main source of illegals comes from visa overstayers or those here on a study visa who use that as a bogus reason for entry.  Our problem is the fact that Australia has become the new " El Dorado " for those fleeing civil war and oppression - and there is every indication that these conditions are growing exponentially on the world stage.

It would be a good idea to learn from the American experience, and look to our own defences before the undocumented illegals here become a major problem !