Honest. I’m not being snarky here. I really can’t figure it out, maybe someone here can explain it to me.

Why do we need “border security”? We’re getting ready to spend enormous amounts of money and effort to build a wall along the Mexican border, not to mention troops, drones, and all the other measures now being contemplated. What for?

Mexicans don’t need to make the perilous midnight journey across the desert to enter the US illegally. All they have to do is go to any of the existing border crossings (as millions already do, perfectly legitmately, every year) and simply tell the frontier guards they are crossing to go shopping, or visit relatives, or as a tourist. They may have to flash some ID, but there’s nothing to stop them from doing so. Once they are on the other side no one knows who or where they are. I’ve crossed the border several times in the past and other than a very short interview, never been thoroughly searched or questioned, on the way there or for the trip back. For that matter, there is commercial transport such as buses or aircraft that could be used. You don’t need a passport to enter the US from Mexico, and if you can afford to pay a coyote a couple of grand to smuggle you in, surely you can afford a plane ticket.

I realize that people are cutting through the fence and taking underground tunnels, dying of thirst in the desert, or crossing at lonely frontier outposts, but I suspect those are either drug smugglers and their mules, or Central American refugees who have no ID or simply don’t understand just how porous the border actually is. The Mexican seeking illegal entry could just as easily walk or ride across the Friendship Bridge in El Paso, Tijuana or Del Rio–practically no questions asked. Many already do, on a daily basis. They have jobs on the other side of the border, or they are genuine sight-seers and shoppers, or are coming here for medical treatment or other perfectly legit reasons.

Maybe I’m mistaken, but the only reason I can see for this push to build a border wall is to placate Conservative paranoia about the brown hordes pouring across the border. Big publicity about new border security measures will keep them quiet and happy while American businessmen can still count on a steady supply of cheap, docile illegal labor, which IMHO, is what this is really all about.