We were are all immigrants at some point

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Web users to 'patrol' US border

Texas lawmakers are setting up webcams along the Mexico-Texas border to allow internet users to monitor the border 24-7. I know this is better than vigilante justice that some areas have resorted to but in typical fashion this seems to be addressing the problem rather than proposing a solution to the root cause.

To me this is just another way to feed the cycle of xenophobia that has been growing in world as of late. I'm not just talking about American's afraid of everyone else and vice versa, I'm talking about people not trusting one another. Unlike what the media would like you to believe you are not always in imminent danger and not everyone hates you or wants to do you harm. allowing regular Joes to "patrol the border", besides entertaining the conservative elderly while they point and click their way to immigration enforcement, seems like a poor way to address the problem.

What is the problem? Well there isn't one simple answer and I'm sure if you ask 10 different experts they'd give you 10 different answers. In my opnion the issue is one of integration and of a wealth gap. My highschool history prof once told us an interesting anecdote of the migration patterns of the "white Americans" and how they were driven from the center of city to he periphery of the city and then to the suburbs where they lived in gated houses with security systems to keep "the others" out. Are "other people" really a danger to you and me or are there third-parties that would like you to think so.

I'm not blaming the integration issue on white people. Every race is guilty of shutting out other races because that is what the kids observed the elders doing. Just because something was done before doesn't mean it has to be done again. Still I suppose many have said before that history repeats itself, but we should resist the necessity to act like those before us have acted.

The wealth gap is also an issue that has been exacerbated in recent times. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. The GDP difference between the US ($11,750 B) and Mexico ($1,006 B) is collosal and the per capita GDP difference is huge ($40K vs $10K)! Where such a large delta occurs one can reasonably expect the forces of the free market to cause the supply in labor to want to move over to where the equilibrium price is higher.

Beyond illegal immigration, the wealth gap just seems wrong to me. In Pakistan I saw beggars on the street under billboards for Porche's new Cayenne SUV. Something doesn't seem right about that from a common-sense perspective. When the gap between rich and poor gets to be overwhelming, the imaginary walls we build to protect us from the poor masses will only stand for so long.