Rereading the info on the Tampa crisis, this sparked (no pun intended) an interesting idea regarding the America-Mexico immigration situation.
Australia has quite a severe illegal immigration. People come (in boats) from all over the place, but mostly through Indonesia, following the abolition of the White Australia Policy. In 1992, mandatory detention was introduced with bipartisan support (a very rare thing in a political scene just as, if not more, partisan than the American).
Basically the policy is that if you enter the country illegally, you are detained in special centres in Australia our outside via the Pacific Solution.
Would this policy work in the US? It would be useful I think if it did, but there are number of problems I see.
1. Australia is basically an island. Yes, it is technically a continent, but the fact remains you can't walk to Australia if you aren't already in it. That means illegal immigration is purely through illegal boats (usually ill-constructed fishing vessels), which makes it damned easy to pick up big groups - 20, 50, 100 or more at a time. AFAIK this is nothing like what America experiences - people come on their own (well, in small groups) without warning.
2. Then there's the moral issue. Morally, it's shady - I mean... look up some of the stuff on the net to learn more. For one thing, it won't earn you any favours from anybody. Australia has copped a fair bit of flak over it.
But still, IF (emphasise: IF) it works...
Australia has quite a severe illegal immigration. People come (in boats) from all over the place, but mostly through Indonesia, following the abolition of the White Australia Policy. In 1992, mandatory detention was introduced with bipartisan support (a very rare thing in a political scene just as, if not more, partisan than the American).
Basically the policy is that if you enter the country illegally, you are detained in special centres in Australia our outside via the Pacific Solution.
Would this policy work in the US? It would be useful I think if it did, but there are number of problems I see.
1. Australia is basically an island. Yes, it is technically a continent, but the fact remains you can't walk to Australia if you aren't already in it. That means illegal immigration is purely through illegal boats (usually ill-constructed fishing vessels), which makes it damned easy to pick up big groups - 20, 50, 100 or more at a time. AFAIK this is nothing like what America experiences - people come on their own (well, in small groups) without warning.
2. Then there's the moral issue. Morally, it's shady - I mean... look up some of the stuff on the net to learn more. For one thing, it won't earn you any favours from anybody. Australia has copped a fair bit of flak over it.
But still, IF (emphasise: IF) it works...
The paradox is only a conflict between reality and your feeling what reality ought to be.
~ Richard Feynman
~ Richard Feynman