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If your neighbor's yard is overgrown with tall grass and weeds and that neighbor is both able bodied and owns a lawn mower, you have to conclude that his lawn is uncut because for some reason he doesn't want to cut it.

This is analogous to the illegal immigration problem in America. With all the resources available to the Federal government, no thinking person could possibly believe that this situation has no solution. As long as the benefits of having illegal workers in the USA outweigh the political costs, there will be no real effort to change status quo.

As long as the American people can be placated by half truths and delaying tactics instead of demanding real solutions the invasion will continue.

There are ways to solve the problem of illegal immigration without resorting to draconian measures on the one hand or total capitulation on the other. Some pundits propose that we take the profit motive out of illegal immigration by coming down hard on those who employ the non-documented. Others, with equal fervor, take the position that our economy has come to rely on those willing to enter the country illegally in search of a better life.

Which side of the argument carries the most weight? Anyone's answer to that question would depend on whether they benefit or suffer from the presence of the illegals. Lost in the rhetoric, hidden among the statistics concerning strain on infrastructure versus lowered production costs is any real effort to find solutions that would be win-win.

The illegals are here, Millions upon millions of them and more arriving every day. It would be logistically impossible to round them up and head them back across the border. By the same token, we can't just throw our hands up and say, "Hey, you win." What we can do is take a pragmatic stance and make something positive from what is now a seemingly insurmountable problem.

Agriculture and the housing industry, to name but two, say the illegal worker is essential to their being able to compete in a cost effective manner. Let's stipulate that they are correct. Certain industries need low cost, unskilled labor and our neighbors to the south need a safety valve for their overpopulated, underdeveloped economies.

The simplest solution would be some sort of guest worker program which would place on the employer the onus of supervising their temporary workers both on and off the job. Let the employers, working through licensed brokers, have as many guest workers as they require. But those employers

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