Daniel T. Griswold [Director of the Center for Trade Policy Study, Cato Institute]: "The 700-mile, $1.2-billion wall along the U.S.-Mexican border that Congress authorized before leaving town will not stem the flow of illegal immigrants to the United States. It will be an expensive, ugly band-aid. We built several miles of walls through urban areas in the 1990s, and it only succeeded in diverting the flow of migrants deeper into the desert. The new wall, whenever it is built, would still leave a good 1,000 miles of border unfenced. Like previous enforcement-only efforts, the wall will only succeed in raising smuggling fees and death rates as immigrants seek to enter through more remote regions. And it will do nothing to stop those who enter the country legally and overstay their visas.

A truly effective response to illegal immigration must include a temporary worker program. The U.S. economy continues to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs each year for low-skilled workers, while the pool of Americans ready to fill those jobs continues to shrink. A temporary worker visa would allow peaceful, hardworking immigrants from Mexico and other countries to enter the United States through a safe, orderly, legal channel rather than sneaking across the desert. It would enable the U.S. government to focus its enforcement firepower on keeping out criminals and terrorists rather than would-be janitors and construction workers."