The Great Wall is not an Immigration or Border Security Plan

  The current impasse over the Federal budget over the border wall has turned into a stalemate with no possible compromise that doesn't compund the issue. The only compromise he is willing to accept is to throw other bills in to increase the spending, exacerbating the problem. The public argument seems to be either border security or open borders, which is a complete misstatement of the debate.
  There seems to be an interpretation by Trump supporters that the Wall is more than a Wall, but represents immigration reform. There's no legitimate reason to make that suggestion. President Trump has been very clear that his plan is for a wall of concrete or steel and that national security depends on it. Of course, what he terms national security is something that has essentially been happening for tears and his solution will take years to complete - aside from the cost. And ultimately, includes no hint of any type of border protection or immigration reform beyond his wall.
  On the other side, the Democratic leadership have declared a wall immoral and "not who we are as a people." That is definitely a line of thinkinmg that can be argued for and against, but the utlimate point is that it is both costly and ineffective. There's no suggestion about open borders.
  The problem is that no one really wants an actual plan. Not politicians or people if they really get down to what it means. Without recognizing that the discussion can't go anywhere. The US economy has relied on an exploited underclass since the beginning, but particularly since the transition to the industrial age, and even more so now in the digital age.  I can go into that further, but essentially, the Mexican workers slowly replaced slavery after emancipation (Chinese slaves were essential for the development of the railroad). Today our food production is only available so cheap because we don't have to pay real wages or benefits to those who are illegally here. If they complain or organize, we can get them deported. As much as I didn't care for John McCain, he was right on when he said Americans aren't willing to go to Yuma to pick lettuce. As automated as farming has become, it still relies heavily on back breaking manual labor.
  Any reasonable discussion on illegal immigration has to have this understanding. Instead, it is ignored and focus is placed elsewhere. No matter how much I treat the symptoms, if we ignore the cancer, it doesn't go away.
  Having said that, it's important to define the issues that are the real problems and address each to create a comprehensive plan. The first and biggest issue with illegal immigration is the access to welfare benefits and services. That goes beyond the illegals, but illegals are an easy target for people's frustration with the welfare state we find ourselves in. That's pretty easy to address if we want to - through positive identification. Don't allow services to be given without positive IDs.
  That's the second item - positive IDs. Currently illegals use forged identification - stolen social security numbers primarily - to create false IDs. US banks and the IRS are fully aware and complicit in this. They become aware very quickly when a duplicate SSN is being used, and just assign an additional code to separate the accounts (such as nnn-nn-nnnn-a or -b). If you were to accidentally get bank mail from your ID to an account you don't recognize, the bank will refuse to give you information on that account as they know it's someone else's. This happens quite often. Of course, the IRS knows because they get payroll taxes that they know will not get returned in a tax return - it's free, unaccountable money for them. Positive ideas have to be 100% accounted for and electronically traceable.
  That leads to the third item - to use positive IDs, you have to enable people to have them and make using them easier/better than not having them. One way is with a reasonable guest worker program. A large portion of illegals just want to be able to work and take care of their families. They don't want to immigrate to the US, they want to work. They may come for a year or two, send the money home, and then go home for a year or two. then repeat the cycle. There's really nothing wrong with this. US citizens to to other countries to work all the time. But today, there is no guest worker program, and it's unreasonably expensive to get a green card, and it put's you at the mercy of a lot of unscrupulous parties. The guest worker program would of course include positive IDs and time-based VISAs.
  SO the next item - Time-based VISAs. Most (more than 50%) illegal immigrant came legally, but overstayed their Visa. There's no reason for that in this era of computers. A Visa is time-based, and when the time is up, it is flagged and if the person has not been granted an extension, they get a visit from law enforcement. Additionally, many Visa overstays are holding jobs, etc that include payroll taxes, etc. Something that requires their IDs. and so could be easily identified and tracked. Their bank accounts are tracked. Illegally overstaying a VISA is a crime, and so due process would allow their payroll and bank accounts to be blocked pursuant to a hearing.
  No so far, that takes care of the non-criminally motivated illegal immigration (recognizing that all illegal immigration is criminal - but it is different than criminally motivated issues such as drug or human smuggling). The criminally-motivated illegal border crossing (it's is not really immigration based at all) has different requirements that need to be addressed. FYI, taking care of the non-criminally motivated opens up law enforcement to deal with crimes that have actual victims.
  One problem is the US's psychotic drug program and the "War on Drugs." We treat users as victims and put our efforts into trying to stop sales. That's backwards and ignores the most basic economic rules we know. You can never stop demand by stopping supply. In the US, there is a strong market demand for drugs to abuse. In conjunction, we have strong laws against supplying that demand - which greatly magnifies the risk, and thus the reward. The drug war brought us the cartels - the crime syndicates focused primarily on meeting the demand. As the risk grows, the cost gets higher increasing the reword.  Worse, we are legalizing some drugs (marijuana for recreational use) while still prosecuting people for producing it. The demand for marijuana is far outpacing the production putting is in the never ending cycle. Ignoring the demand (users) creates the imbalance that actually encourages the supply.
  As an FYI, anyone who uses illegal drugs or marijuana is contributing to drug crime and the cartels. Take responsibility.
  The way around it is to decriminalize drugs themselves contribute to the crime in the US. I don't say legalize, because the government doesn't really have the right to criminalize them (the libertarian in me speaking). Ultimately, if someone want's to sit in their room all day doing drugs until they kill themselves and don't hurt anyone else - that's their call.
  On that vein, punishments for being under the influence should be much greater. You get a DUI and kill someone, you pretty much get a death penalty. Any public infractions while DUI = jail time. Removing demand is the only way to cutting demand. Less demand = no reason for cartels to function.
  Of course, just as there are non-discussed benefits of illegal immigration, there are even greater benefits to the drug war and continued drug abuse. Hugh amounts of federal budget - and power - are associated with the illicit drug trade and the war on it.
  Take are of these, and it eliminates virtually all the reasons for illegal immigration and border crossing. And none of it carries the cost an ineffective wall would carry. It would also have the benefit of eliminating billions of federal spending. But, it would also increase the individual costs as without the exploited worker, the cost of food will go up substantially - taking more of people's time or resources.
  Combine this with a reasonable fence, such as the amended SecureFence bill provisions, and the Border Patrol can keep up with what's left and even reasonably manage the border.
  So here you go - a comprehensive plan that actually addresses the issues. Here's the short list.

1 - No welfare/services without positive ID
2 - Positive IDs
3 - Guest Worker program
4 - Time-based Visa's that are tracked with overstays identified - with payroll and bank accounts frozen.
6 - Decriminalize of drugs - including production
7 - High prosecutions for effects from drug abuse (driving, etc) rather than the mere existence of drugs.

  But because of the financial and power implications, it is likely to never get implemented, and we will be fighting budgets over a wall for years to come.