Ted, Here's my best explanation. All problems come with priorities. Illegal immigrants are a problem, but they're not threatening the existence of our civilization. As a civil and civilized nation, we are willing to fence and patrol a lot of the southern border which does lower the rate of infiltration very significantly. We are not, however, willing to violently repel people who come seeking a better life. No one would volunteer to shoot women and children when they set foot on our soil. And that is what it would take. As a whole and as a Christian nation we would rather suffer the expense of accepting a degree of illegal immigration than forcefully repelling all invaders. In addition, there is the consideration other posts have mentioned: economically we need these workers. As is often pointed out here, some Americans are lazy. They don't want to do stoop labor. Picking strawberries is very hard work. Before I moved from southern Oregon, I saw farmers ploughing their strawberry crops under because they couldn't hire people to pick them. So, as a nation we've decided to live with a measure of illegal immigration. So far, it's manageable. The Spartans were faced with people bent on exterminating them. We're faced with people so desperate for a better life that they'll send their children when they can't afford to try to accompany them. Our survival is not what is at stake here.
