As some of you might remember, I have a good friend from Mexico. He is here illegally. He has a girlfriend and a baby, and the baby is actually quite legal. As a matter of fact, she is a US citizen. A point that I am sure ticks off at least as many of you as remembered me writing previously about my friend in the first place.

We got to talking the other day about his trip up here. His journey to el norte and our land of gringos.

He walked for two nights in the desert, and hid for two days in that same desert. From the immigration patrols is whom he hid from, but I'm sure you figured that out on your own.

At night he could not see where he was going, and a cactus stabbed him in the leg. When he pulled it out in the dark it stabbed his hand. But I'm sure you've been there, too.

When he got to Phoenix the coyote called his girlfriend and told her this was as far as they were taking him, and if she wanted to see him again she would send the money. Even though they were supposed to get him to Denver. I don't doubt for a minute you can relate to that. We've all had coyotes mess with our head, after all. Just like we have all been threatened that we'll disappear if we didn't pay our bills.

So he went to the bus station, very scared because he thought this is where he might get caught, and found the place full of illegal immigrants. When he told me this he laughed just a little, and said something to the effect that if the immigration patrol wanted to find the illegal Mexicanos, they had only to go to the bus stations.

At this point I debated discussing the whole theory behind our law against profiling, but decided against it. It has never made much sense to me anyway. I mean, looking for Latinos at bus stations when you are looking for illegal immigrants makes about as much sense as looking for Middle Easterners at the airport when you are looking for terrorists.

We'd much rather build walls and search grandmothers than offend any one group.

When I asked how much the coyotes are charging these days for their scenic route to the land of the free, he said he thought it was somewhere around $1000.00 to $1500.00.

He also told me he never wants to make that trip again, which is why he hasn't been home in something like 8 years.

The topic of illegal immigrants and what to do about them has kind of hit the back burner since our Congress, in all their wisdom, voted down the one common sense proposal Mr. Bush has put forth in his 7 plus years in office.

Instead we get YourHub bloggers telling us of the great conspiracy of these illegals to reclaim the southwest for Mexico. We get YourHub bloggers complaining that their bank has information in Spanish.

We get proposals and directives from Washington to build walls to separate the two countries, even if the people where the walls are to be located don't want them. I won't even bring up the cost of such a project, because the idea itself is ludicrous enough standing on its own.

We hear the hysteria about how they are stealing our jobs, though I have yet to hear of a parent of a High School or college graduate say they hope their child goes onto a career flipping burgers or working labor on a construction site.

I listen to talk shows where the host tells us we need to crack down on employers. Yeah, let's do that, then we can complain about how we can't get any work done because the contractors have no help.

You want to hear something ironic? In Mexico they complain about the Guatemalans coming across their border and taking their jobs. Those dang peasants will work for nothing, you see.

Here's a novel idea. Offer every illegal immigrant a work visa for $1000.00. Let them apply for it at the border. Sure would beat the scenic trip the coyotes offer, wouldn't you say? Think of the money that could be raised. One thousand dollars x 10 million is a whole lot of pesos, muchacho.

Then you could work with the employers. I am pretty sure most would jump at the chance to get all their help on the books. Then it would make sense to come down on those continuing to use illegals, though I dare say it would become a non-issue.

We could actually treat these dang illegal immigrants like what they are; people trying to better their lives, and making huge sacrifices to do it. People willing to do the bottom rung work for the chance to pull themselves up.

Just tell them right off the bat: you try to reclaim Texas and we're kicking you out. That oughta stop that.

Nah, too simple. Let's just build a wall instead. It's gonna take a lot of labor, though.

I know! Tell every gringo kid in America he/she needs to work on the wall for one year before they can go to college. Make sense to me.

Heck, we could build quite a wall then, don't you think?