No easy answers on illegal workers

Anyone looking for an easy answer to the immigrant worker question has a long search ahead of them.

On one hand, one has to admire anyone who will risk crossing the border illegally only to take a low-paying job that no U.S. resident wants. The family is especially important in Latin American cultures and much of the money earned off the books here ends up improving the quality of life for relatives back home.

But it's true some of those jobs could go to legal workers if employers follow the rules. The problem is, some employers use their workers' illegal status to subject them to near slavery.

And, others argue that offering legal status to workers here illegally only institutionalizes a system that creates second-class workers doomed to perennial poverty.

Sen. Ben Nelson issued a release Tuesday reiterating his focus on border security, through his bipartisan bill to build a two-layer, 1,900-mile fence along the entire U.S.-Mexican border, hiring an extra 10,000 border patrol agents and using new technology.

Although a similar bill, calling for a 700 mile fence, has been advanced in the House, it may be running into trouble.

House Majority Leader John Boehner, who voted for the bill, said his meeting with farmers and law enforcement officials in the region was less than encouraging.

"No one in the room thought the wall would work, because if you build the wall, then you have to police the wall," he said of the meeting. "If the people on the border don't believe the wall will have the effect that people here think, then we ought to reconsider it."

Still, Nelson has a point. It seems only logical to seal the border as the first step in any plan to deal with illegal immigrant workers.