For some reason, the liberal position on the southern US border is some ill-defined permissive approach, while the conservative line demands nothing less than an enormous wall from California to Florida. Despite this, I have argued the wall position in debates, but not because I want to keep Mexicans (or whichever Latin American group is the problem this week) but to make clear just how substantially the US depends on latino immigrants to keep the economy running.

Sadly, our Congress has seen fit to grant my wish. On 9/22 NY Times offered the article Pickers Are Few, and Growers Blame Congress to illustrate. Let me be clear, I have taken this point only from the intellectual standpoint that America will never confront the staggering hypocrisy of its stance on immigration (summed up reasonably as "lock the gates behind me") without the pain of seeing what happens once immigrants can't get in.

Well, we're seeing it. Piles of rotting produce everywhere. At least, for once, somehow, people assign the blame correctly.

“After a while, you get done being sad and start being really angry,” said Toni Scully, a lifelong Republican whose family owns a pear-packing operation in Lake County. “The Republicans have given us a lot of lip service, and our crops are hanging on the trees rotting.”