We need to have a living wage in this country. We need to repeal NAFTA and CAFTA and every other trade agreement that benefits corporations at the expense of workers, the environment and host countries. We need to lift up America and lift up the world. We need to listen to people like Jeffrey Sachs. It would be a relatively easy thing to do if we used our enormous power for good instead of evil – easier certainly than doing what we’re doing which is leading to a degraded planet, perpetual war, famine and pestilence and the much smaller problem of illegal immigration into the United States.

Living wage, universal health care, fair trade, voting reform (Since we are effectively disenfranchised with the use of unverfiable electronic voting machines. We won’t get anything without getting voting reform first.) and workers’ rights. These are what we should be marching for. And my god, we should be marching every day. These reforms will solve the problem of illegal immigration.

Until we get serious about all of that, we’re going to be talking about about band-aids that do nothing but disappear into the wound.

You are so right about the complexity of this issue. I find myself (a lifelong liberal, ACLU member, etc.) agreeing with Lou Dobbs on this issue. He has been harping about this problem for years. He sees it for what it is, Global Corporate greed. While your comments about breaking up families appeals to my liberal tendencies, the fact is they have started families in a country where they have no legal status. The cost of deporting 12 million illegals alone, will prevent it from ever happening. In fact I’m not sure the federal government is even up to the task of documenting all those people (see Katrina). I believe the solution must begin and end with cracking down on people and corporations that hire illegals, a $40,000.00 fine and a felony conviction, no need for barrier walls and border storm troopers. Many on the right who want this guest worker program just want a global cheap labor pool to exploit, I haven’t quite figured out why some on the left want the guest worker program. To me it is just another form of legalized slavery. As far as the marches I have to give them credit, If only we could have such marches to exhibit the 65% opposition to the Iraq war. Although I think the marches and demonstrations need to happen in Latin America, if the standard of living there was livable we wouldn’t have all of these people so desperate to work here. Like you said it is very complex, and I don’t see this current bunch in Washington (left or right) having the brain power or political will to fix it.

The truth is that when an employer hires an undocumented worker and pays them under the table, s/he avoids paying taxes. Such as social security, unemployment insurance, and worker’s comp.

In my life I’ve seen the minimum wage go up a few times, and every time the conservatives have a screaming fit and wail that it’s going to reduce the number of jobs and drive small businesses owners into bankruptcy, and it never happens. But a raise the size you are proposing is scary even to me.

This is a complex issue — more so than it might seem from a distance — and coming up with the best solution will require input from many perspectives. I’m not sure what the answer is, but yours doesn’t seem to me to be feasible.