Could we find a way to keep them from coming much further than the border?

I couldn't agree more Coscho.You are definitely on the right track. I´m not American. I live outside the U.S, and I can easily sense that poor wages and no jobs are the #1 reason for border jumpers to abandon their country. It is not your government´s problem .But. If the U.S made the kind of investment you are proposing it would dramatically bring down the percentage of people trying to get in to the U.S. And better still If the industrialization you are visioning was made in their country of origin. Then they would be centrally located there and not on U.S borders.

In my personal situation, I am clear to enter and leave the U.S . with a visa . My family owns a coffee plantation and some other businesses so we are all right and trying to help. But poverty is overwhelming. I meet people planning to leave everyday . because they can´t afford medicine and can´t support their families, etc. And I often find myself thinking of solutions that would concur with your idea.

NAFTA created jobs in their country when U.S. companies moved over the border. However, the corporations pay them slave wages so they still come over here. It's not practical to put all business near the border just to try to solve immigration problems. By securing the border we force Mexico to begin dealing with their corruption and economic problems instead of exporting their problems to the U.S. There's no other reason why Mexico can't be as prosperous as the U.S. and Canada.

After we effectively secure the border, then we can talk about immigration reform. We've seen from the past amnesty that the government can't be trusted to do more than one thing at a time. Part of the last amnesty was a promise to secure the borders. This time we need to do that first before we talk about anything else.

That could work perhaps. or maybe we should build a huge mote, that is 20 feet deep and 200 feet wide and have it the whole length of the border and filled with sharks with lasers on there heads. Iam serious.

There seriously isn't enough to prevent them from coming. But its so controversial becuz they both harm and help the economy. Anyhow, I would jump the fence if I were them. I mean, what have we been told in school since kindergarted? Follow your Dreams! You can do antyhing if you believe in yourself? Remember? How then, can we tell them to let go of theirs?

That doesn't solve the issue about the people who are here already though. What will happen to them?

have you ever been to any border? i live near three ports to Mexico.

Is this Dick Cheney?