Make no mistake, illegal aliens are not the problem.  They are the symptom.
 
The illegal immigration problem has three dimensions:

  o  illegal aliens submerged in our population;
  o  drawing cards that exploit them;
  o  leadership that panders to the drawing cards.
 
Poor Mexicans cannot be faulted for pursuing an opportunity to improve their situation when it presents itself.   Indeed one cannot help but admire them for their guts and determination, often born of desperation.  The confluence of geography, the pitiful state of their third world State of Mexico, and the greed and avarice of the “drawing cards” present them with an opportunity with little risk.
 
Geography:  Mexico is unique among third world countries.  An accident of geo-political evolution gave Mexico a border with the richest and most democratic nation on earth.  This removes the very real physical oceanic barriers that poor immigrants (and would-be immigrants) of previous waves had to surmount.  The Mexican illegal alien can move back and forth across the imaginary border, a political figment of the imagination, at some risk but without much effort. 
 
Mexico:  This third world state should be helped to second or even first world status by the United States!  It is certainly the friendly, even Christian, thing to do, to say nothing of being in our own best interest.  Unfortunately, this is not in the best interest of the tiny but wealthy and all-powerful Mexican elite.  The gap of privilege between them and the vast majority of worthy deprived Mexicans is absolutely unconscionable.  And the Catholic Church underwrites this state of affairs in Mexico just as it has in so many other countries for so many centuries. 
 
But even if aid were offered, the Mexican people are way to proud to accept any help and guidance from the Gringos to the north, even if said Gringos had the wisdom and guts to offer it in a well thought out graduated plan over several generations.  Talk about a tragic comedy of errors, and you are talking about Mexico and our relationship to it.
 
Drawing Cards: The drawing cards entice the illegal aliens by the promise of a better life.  Once here, that too often translates into third world pay under the table, third world worker protection, and the constant threat of being reported and deported if there are any complaints about how they are taken advantage of. 
 
Business is in the business of maximizing profits.  If that is all that some unscrupulous business people focus on, the illegal aliens are fertile ground in which to sow and reap. 
 
Our “leaders”, and I use the term loosely, are the problem.  The Bush regime and the Senators and Representatives of both parties’ are in bed with business and international corporations to the virtual exclusion of their Average American constituency.  Fox and the Mexican leaders support the exodus from their country because of the foreign exchange that is flooding back into Mexico, recently surpassing oil as the main source of foreign revenue for the government.  Fox and the Mexican elite are literally leasing their people out to business interests in America because they choose not to provide a decent existence for them at home in Mexico.
 
The Catholic Church is not exactly a drawing card.  Lord only knows that the Mexican poor have plenty of Catholicism in their everyday lives.  But the Catholic Church in the United States supports, and sometimes tacitly encourages, the invasion from Mexico.  The motivation is not too deeply buried under the rhetoric: it obviously needs the predominantly Catholic Mexicans as replacements for faltering membership. 
 
Some unions are in bed with their hereditary rivals in the business world because, as with the Catholic Church, they are losing clout through dwindling membership.  This has to be a strain within the union world.  On the one hand the union movement is encouraging the illegal aliens to come to the United States and take jobs at a third world wage that should go to Americans at a decent wage.  On the other hand, this drives down wages across the board from the bottom up for its American membership.
 
The solution to the illegal immigration problem has three dimensions: 
  o  enforce our current laws to the hilt; 
  o  control the border decisively;
  o  develop and implement a long-term Marshall Plan for Mexico.
 
Enforcement:  The laws on the books are sufficient to nail the evildoers.  That would be the illegal employers.  The laws have been all but ignored by our government.  We don’t need no stinking new laws - although the laws on the books might need a little tweaking and amending.  We do need enforcement.  To Hell with new laws that would be ignored again anyway.  Hold congress and the administration’s feet to the fire of enforcement.
 
Border Control:  Get serious about it.  We have to be the laughing stock of the world.  Here we are throwing our weight around globally in places like Iraq, and we can’t even keep poor Mexican Peons from crossing our borders at will.  What a comedy we present.  Here we are, the first-world's first resident and we can’t (more accurately, won’t) convince our third-world neighbor to keep its people home.
 
Marshall Plan:  This is a problem that is not going to go away through neglect.  We here in America have a doorstep opportunity to perform a wonderful act of mutual friendship with our poor neighbor Mexico.  This is the virtuous America at work.  What a shining beacon we would be!  This should be a benevolent and sensitive plan intended and designed in cooperation with Mexico to benefit the peoples of both great nations.  It is a multigenerational effort.  Let us hope and pray that we will have noble leadership rise up once again that can and will guide us in this noble effort. 

Make no mistake, it's not the illegal aliens that are the problem!