They might be illegal, but they are not uninvited.

I can only wish that America would discuss the immigration problem realistically. Thus far, we only see rantings and ravings about unsecure borders and stolen jobs. These pleas to emotion help keep up TV ratings, but they don't explain why this problem is so difficult to solve.

1. CRIMINAL EMPLOYERS -- As long as American businesses get away with hiring illegals, they will continue to come here.

2. MEXICO'S IMMIGRATION PROBLEM -- Unbeknownst to many Americans, Mexico is itself experiencing this exact same problem. Their southern border is being flooded by South and Central Americans looking for a better way of life. This is why Mexico doesn't care about the U.S. border issue. They NEED for some of their people to leave the country.

3. NAFTA -- Companies have moved to Mexico because they want to pay the lowest wage possible. These new jobs attracted workers from even poorer nations south of Mexico. So, instead of raising Mexico's standard of living (as we were promised by Clinton and the GOP), it has lowered it. Because whatever low standard of living the Mexicans would accept, the Guatemalans and Hondurans would be happy to accept even lower. This has pushed southern Mexicans into the north, and northern Mexicans into America.

4. POLITICIANS -- Can anyone win the Presidency by losing California, Texas, and Florida (and probably every other southern border state)? That's the price for trying to launch an effective effort to catch and throw out the illegals. You throw out Juan, leaving his American-citizen child to a foster home, and all of Juan's American-citizen relatives will vote against you. As well as all the other sympathetic Latino-Americans.

5. PUBLIC SERVICES -- It's easy to agree that illegals shouldn't be able to come here and live off the fat of our social safety net. But officials would have a major crisis on their hands if they had to contain entire neighborhoods full of uneducated starving people. Ever see "Escape From New York"? Just add Spanish. Imagine that next door, but without the massive retaining wall.

This problem is NOT going away. And no amount of "tough talk" is going to solve it. We might vote for candidates who preach shutting down the border, but that will only make the ladders taller and the tunnels deeper. The forces inside America and Mexico who want those illegals here are far more powerful than the public's demand to keep them out. The solution begins and ends with addressing those forces.

The rest is just TV theater.