For a while now I've been saying that if we wish to really get a hold of our illegal immigration problem, then we will have to impose a penalty upon the illegals. Senator Kyl (R-AZ) notes that a new program regarding Other Than Mexican (OTM) illegals to detain and then deport (rather than, as before, catch and release) has had a swift affect upon illegal immigration:

Despite the fact that many of the 100-plus countries from which these OTMs came are known to host terrorist organizations, 70 percent were released simply for lack of a place to keep them while they were waiting for the papers to be readmitted into their home countries. In the comprehensive immigration reform bill I introduced, 10,000 new detention beds would be authorized. In the meantime, I worked with DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff to provide for expedited removal along the entire border and acquire temporary detention space for those awaiting removal...

...The implementation of expedited removal on July 2 changed all that. Once word got out that the Brazilians were being sent home, rather than being released pending a hearing, they stopped coming. Apprehensions plummeted by 90% in just three months.

People who come to America illegally come because they want something - usually, a place to work which will allow them to send money home. Previously, there was no penalty for OTM's to come into the United States. As Senator Kyl notes, some OTM's would actually seek out Border Patrol agents so that they could be cited and then released - these illegals would just never show up for the hearing which would determine their ability to remain in the United States. A penalty has now been imposed - we catch you, we hold you and then we return you home...now that its no longer painless to come in, there has been a huge drop in OTM's coming in.

Mexican illegals are our biggest problem, of course - and expedited removal just doesn't do the trick. Crossing is so easy for a Mexican that getting caught even one in three times just isn't that much a bother. The best penalty to impose upon Mexican illegals is detention - hold them for a week the first offense, a month the second, six months for the third, one year for the fourth and subsequent apprehensions. The time spent in the can is time the illegal cannot earn money and therefore cannot do what he primarily wants to do in America. It is the harshest penalty imaginable...and I believe that it would swiftly reduce the number of illegal crossings because once a man has been caught twice, then he knows he's in for a long stretch if he gets caught again.

Such a program would be expensive, but it would swiftly bring the borders under control and thus allow the political possibility of a guest-worker program which would allow the Mexican workers to legally do what they are illegally doing now...with the benefit for the US being (aside from the labor we desire) the taxes we'd collect, the welfare benefits we wouldn't have to pay, and the additional security as we are better able to separate the wheat of honest workers from the chaff of criminals and terrorists who use the illegals as cover for their own crossings into the United States.

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