Perhaps its time to look at the U.S. illegal immigration woes in a global way and begin to realize that any mechanisms the United States may implement to secure its border with Mexico can only be momentary, finger-in-the-dike solutions in the grand scheme of population migrations in the near future. As climate change marches relentlessly forward and sea levels rise, ice caps and glaciers melt, rivers dry up, and wild fires and devastating storms affect more people, the immigration problems that this country is now experiencing will seem like child's play. Instead, we need to consider the problem on a new philosophical basis, thinking in terms of how to accommodate populations rather than how to exclude them. Once we free our thoughts from a mindset of resistance to one of acceptance we can begin to utilize the combined resources that become available on all sides of the issue. We can begin planning, enlisting the aid of climatologists who are already charting the migration directions likely to result from increasing drought here and flooding there. We can project agricultural changes, such as the drying up of the vast grain production areas of the great plains and the warming up of more northern locations such as Bismarck, North Dakota (89℉ today) or Fargo (87℉) and begin now to plan an agricultural shift. We can take another look at the vast still uninhabited areas of the United States to find ways to make them more habitable for immigrants willing to adopt a pioneer spirit of hard work and creativity in order to establish a home. We can work closely and positively with the countries sharing our borders to formulate a cooperative and inclusive plan that includes all the people using combined technologies and utilizing that greater pool of physical and intellectual resources.
When viewed through this lens, the growing dispute around the new immigration law of Arizona can be seen as useless and wasteful of both time and money. The miles of fences, hordes of patrol guards, and untold spending in detection technologies to keep our neighbors out is not the answer. Students of history can aver that since its inception the United States has learned and relearned the fact that an isolationist policy is ultimately an untenable policy. So it is now.
Instead, the United States must continue to do what it has always done: welcome the world's poor and needy. And it must do what it does best: lead the world by example. Let's address illegal immigration with planned migration strategies. Let's begin negotiations with Canada to work together to expand the future northern breadbaskets of Saskatchewan and Alberta into combined agricultural centers with Montana and North Dakota, sharing technologies for production and shipping to benefit the entire hemisphere. Let's tear down the walls and fences on our border with Mexico and in their place together construct an array of solar panels and lines of windmills to power future industry for both countries and to pump water inland from desalination plants on the Baja Peninsula. Let's prepare for the future and at the same time create industry, increase employment, and improve the shared economy of the this hemisphere.
And maybe, once we have accomplished this, once we have led the way, the rest of the world will follow.
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