THE BORDER REPORT

A crotchety, 75-year-old general manager of an Austin, Texas, water supply company is facing calls for his resignation after he referred to a proposed detention facility south of the city as a "holding pen for wetbacks" in a public notice, the Austin American-Statesman reports this morning.

While Charles Laws has his Don Imus moment, let's look at what other people who encounter the diaspora call them when the cameras aren't on them. From "wets" to "little dead ones" to "tonks," most of the time, it isn't pretty, but has become so ingrained in the daily vernacular of the border that I doubt people even notice when they use their favorite terms.

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MORE GOVERNMENT INEPTITUDE

This is mildly stupid; if the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency is serious about dispensing visas to skilled professionals, they may want to start by fixing their broken Web pages.

I was reading the Arizona Daily Star's series on legal immigration and then found this story with Microsoft founder Bill Gates where he argues that the minimal number of skilled worker visas is leading to job outsourcing because the tech companies can't find enough qualified employees in the U.S. (Hang on, the stupid part's coming.)

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THE BORDER REPORT

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THE BORDER REPORT

The Man in the Maze, the Trickster, has decided – no digital border fence. Rather, Homeland Security Department decided – or maybe the Federal Reserve. Either way, the $20 million virutal wall, which uses wi-fi, video cameras and radar to detect illegal entries, has now been virtually scrapped. The Feds will complete the current 28 miles around Sasabe, but have no plans to implement the technology anywhere else along the border.

The hell of it is, the system could have actually worked, high costs aside. We already spend $1.6 billion -plus on the U.S. Border Patrol every year, what's another $8 billion (GAO's estimate) to actually finish the job?

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THE BORDER REPORT

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