You realize this whole set-piece is really part of preparations for the upcoming Conservative resistance to immigration reform? And although the more enlightened conservatives, like the Bushes, could see it was in their long term best interest, most of their knuckle-dragging constituency hasn't read the memo yet.
Listen carefully, I'll speak real slowly...

If you think about it, the drug problem and the immigration issue have much in common. In both cases, you have a great demand in the United States (for illegal drugs and cheap labor). And in both cases you have a Mexican supplier desperate to supply that market. Markets drive this, borders work to pervert those forces. In either case, legalization of the market would quickly reduce the financial incentive by allowing natural market forces to establish an equilibrium between supply and demand. However, as we all know, free markets are bad for business, and the establishment of a border and prohibitions ensures that both drugs and illegal aliens are highly profitable. This fits in with your Libertarianism, doesn't it? Isn't the Border Patrol just another form of "government regulation"? As for the negative consequences, well…that’s for someone else to worry about, isn’t it?

If drugs were legalized, they could be regulated, quality would be controlled, prices would come down, and the illegal element would be greatly reduced (although probably not eliminated). We know when Prohibition was repealed, bootlegging became a minor problem and organized crime had to find new vices to exploit. All the crime associated with drugs would also be greatly reduced, since users would not have to pay high prices to support their habits, and pushers would not find the risk and danger worth their while financially. And we could tax what is now just contraband. Now you know why the patriots really threw all the British tea into Boston harbor. The Brits weren’t taxing the tea, they had removed the tax and American smugglers were going broke.

The same goes for illegal immigration. Once it became possible for foreign workers to work legally in this country, permits could be handed out in those industries, like agriculture, where a failure to access foreign labor for our businesses would be immediately catastrophic. Other industries would then have to either hire Americans, or negotiate with legal Mexicans for their labor, i.e., a free market would arise in labor, and supply and demand would reach an equilibrium. Of course, this would mean a higher price for labor, and eventually less demand for aliens. Most important of all, a legal worker is a free worker, he has the freedom to find another job if the one he has doesn’t pay enough, or is abusive. If the market will not support that demand, he will have to go home. Best of all, he can organize and negotiate for better pay and working conditions, and he can go on strike. He cannot be intimidated or cheated by the threat of being turned over to the migras the day before payday. Now that’s the real American way! Unless those of you who are reading this are full-blooded Native Americans, that's exactly the deal your foreign-born ancestors were hoping for when they crossed the border. Or have you already forgotten?

Not only that, but foreign workers could now be taxed, to help pay for their own support services, rather than force underemployed Americans to pick up the welfare tab. In seasonal work, such as farm labor, the workers would be able to afford to leave their families back home and go back to Mexico after harvest or planting time (they’d have to, their permits would expire), reducing the need for local communities to support them as indigents. It should be pretty clear by now that welfare for foreign workers is really a cleverly disguised subsidy for American businesses, it’s not a giveaway to the illegals, its a moneymaker for their bosses.

Once the foreign worker is legal, not only is he controlled and regulated for our benefit, he benefits also by participation in a free and legal market, which is by nature more efficient than a monopoly, which is the way it is set up now. The drug cartels are in Mexico, but the labor cartels are completely home owned.

Just as the drug cartels will fight to keep drugs illegal, because it is more profitable for them, then the labor cartels will also oppose immigration reform, for the exact same reason. Now do you understand what is really going on with immigration? All the flag-waving is BS. As always, follow the money.