Without getting overly political, I'd like too discuss the idea of illegal immigration.
Recently, the chattering class was aflutter over a report that roughly half a million visa holders overstayed their visas last year.
Sounds like a lot, right? Well...
Keep in mind the scale of the non-immigrant visa operation. Mission Mexico alone issue over 3 million tourist visas a year. The dreaded visa overstays account for less than 2% of visa holders.
Of course, '500,000 visa violators walk among us!' is a pleasantly scary headline; much better than '98.5% of visa holders abide by all regulations.' Among those 1.5%, surely some are simply mistakes or are otherwise harmless; not all of those violations imply intended immigration or any other nefarious purpose.
And of course, those the most scandalized by the prospect of visa overstays have no solution whatever for how to resolve it. Their responses always seem to involve building a Fortress America and withdrawing from the international system. The US has endured illegal immigration for the past 150 years. I think we'll be OK.
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