Off the wall

To be honest, I haven't been paying attention to the immigration protests going on lately, because this issue is pretty personal to me - I'm the child of immigrants, so I can't help but take this anti-immigration sentiment personally. Nor can I help thinking there is an element of racism embedded in it. I guess I should have been paying attention - you know, to be a responsible citizen and all of that - but because of my personal feelings about the topic, I find it hard to be impartial, let alone listening to both sides of the argument. But this story just pissed me off.

Apparently those Minutemen who are guarding the border are posing an ultimatum to Bush: Build a wall, or we will.

"We're going to show the federal government how easy it is to build these security fences, how inexpensively they can be built when built by private people and free enterprise," [Minuteman Border Leader Chris] Simcox said.

Congress has been debating immigration reform for several months. One bill, approved by the U.S. House in December, calls for nearly 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. The fence proposal has angered Mexicans, with President Vicente Fox calling it "shameful."

It's amazing that these Minutemen think that the answer to America's immigration problem is to build a wall along the border. Not only is it a simplistic, band-aid solution, but it only highlights how they're blinded by their xenophobia.

And who do they think is going to build this wall anyway? You know they're going to drive up to the corner and pick up a truck full of journaleros. Don't EVEN.