CBS News has a report on the emerging phenomenon of civilians (many of them armed) taking it upon themselves to partrol the U.S.-Mexican border in Arizona. As the article explains,

Hundreds of volunteers, some of them armed, are expected to take up positions along the Mexican border Friday and begin patrolling for illegal immigrants -- an exercise critics say could spark vigilante violence. . . [S]ome volunteers will carry handguns, which is allowed under Arizona law, but are being instructed to avoid confrontation, even if shot at. . .

Critics contend the project may attract anti-immigrant racists and vigilantes looking to confront illegal immigrants. At least one White supremacist group has mentioned the project on its Web site. . . Michael Nicley, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson sector, said the volunteers are “not the kind of help the Border Patrol is asking for.”

That’s quite a disturbing trend if you ask me. From a sociological point of view, it also highlights one of the biggest fallacies when it comes to immigration issues. That is, the efforts of these so-called volunteers are, at best, a “bandage” approach -- it only seeks to address one of many symptoms associated with immigration in the U.S. In other words, if Americans really wanted to take concrete steps to more effectively control immigration into the U.S., they need to address the root cause -- namely, poverty and inequality in the sending countries.

There are a lot of complicated push and pull factors that influence why immigrants come to the U.S. Helping the Mexican government to improve the living and working conditions of its working class will go a long way toward stemming the supply of people looking to escape the poverty they’re facing in Mexico by coming to the U.S. (Mexico’s poverty rate is an astounding 40%).

On the demand side, unfortunately, there’s not much one can do because there has always been and will always be a need for cheap labor to support the lifestyles of Americans. The U.S. government can try to lessen the demand for cheap labor by making it easier and cheaper for U.S. companies to employ American citizens. Exactly how would that work? That’s a good question . . .