By Editorial Board
Longview News-Journal
Extreme views of how to deal with illegal immigration range from building a fence along the entire border between the United States and Mexico to those who think it would be possible to deport the more than 10 million illegal immigrants now living here.
Neither of those strategies is ever going to work, though, and the more time we spend considering them is that much less we have to come up with real solutions.
No matter where you position yourself on the political spectrum, immigration into the United States ought to be done legally. The fact so many disregard the law completely suggests it is deeply flawed and needs to be fixed.
Still, until that time, we should only tolerate the legal process, which means U.S. security forces should stop as many of those trying to sneak in as possible. There are sensible ways to do that and one of those is through aerial surveillance of routes known to be used by those guiding illegal immigrants into this country.
That is why we find it so surprising the federal Department of Homeland Security is suggesting cutting the number of flight hours almost in half for this year.
But it gets worse.
Right now the Texas border is experiencing a surge in illegal immigration mostly from Cubans trying to get to the United States. A loophole in immigration law written years ago allows for favorable treatment of Cubans if they can make it to the mainland.
Secondarily, an influx is coming from Central America, where life-threatening conditions make any risk from illegal immigration seem negligible.
